Murphy's Law
by ShyLight
Summary: Through a careless act on his part, Michelangelo causes his brothers to lose their weapons. So, he decides to go after them. Little does he know, this was the first domino in a plan of revenge, at which he is the center of.
1. Law 1

Hello

Hello! This is my first TMNT fic. It's been sitting in my head for the past two weeks and I've finally got around to writing it.

Disclaimer: I don't own and never will.

000

**Murphy's First Law: Nothing is as easy as it looks.**

000

Leo had noticed something interesting about Mikey. Out of all of his brothers, his littlest one seemed to be the most attentive to detail.

As strange as it sounded, his littlest brother was able to pick up on details and observe things that others would just pass over without much of a second thought. This was weird considering how unobservant he appeared to be most of the time, but Leo theorized it wasn't that he was incapable of focusing on things; he just simply chose not to.

He thought back to when he first really noticed. They had been eleven.

000

_He and Raph had been flipping through the channels on the TV (Well, he had actually just been sitting there since it was Raph's turn with the remote.) and Mikey had been passing by the couch with his earphones blaring. Yet his offbeat skipping to the rhythm of his song stopped as he halted and back stepped to be directly behind Raph._

"_Wait a minute! Raph, go back one!" He said slipping his headphones down so they rested comfortably around his neck. _

"_What, it's just cooking shows," Raph said changing the channel back to Food Network. A blond, tall hostess was showing how to make a meatloaf out of leftovers and ketchup._

"_Something's not right," Mikey began as he squint his eyes, leaned forward, and scrutinized the hostess as she kneaded pink, ground meat with her hand. After a moment of observation something seemed to click for Michelangelo. "Dude. Her eyebrows aren't moving," he stated simply._

"_Wha?" Raph looked at the woman. "Looks normal ta me."_

"_No! Look her eyebrows aren't moving, like, at all! See?" He pointed at the screen._

_Raph stared for a moment before leaning back in surprise. "What d' ya know. You're right," he said in amazement. The hostess would look up but there wasn't so much of twitch of anything above her eyes. Not even when she made expressions._

_Donny, who had been passing through, observed too. "Huh. She must have Botox or something injected in her forehead."_

"_Boat, what? Why would an ox ride a boat in someone's forehead?" Mikey looked to his brother in genuine confusion. Donny sighed telling his little brother not to worry about it._

"_Mikey, how did you notice that?" Leo asked incredulously. She had looked normal to him until Mikey pointed out the lack of motion from her eyebrows._

_Mikey shrugged. "I'm not smart. I just try to observe." and with that he flipped his earphones back up, and continued his bouncy trek through the Lair, leaving three confused ninja turtles in his wake._

000

It had truly puzzled him that day. Michelangelo's keenness had actually surprised him. However, today was apparently not one of those days where the orange clad turtle was being conscientious. Leo observed him quietly from his peripheral vision and noticed the almost lackadaisical demeanor of his brother. It was like he wasn't all there.

He was snapped back to his own training as Master Splinter ended his demonstration of a complex form.

"Now I want all of you to perform the kata I have just shown you. Ryu san!" The command was harsh and crisp.

"Ryu san!" Four voices echoed following the first. Then they began their form.

It started with a muwashigedi followed by a front stance. Two consecutive punches then drop back into nekoashidachi, cat stance, knife hand, block, block, and trap. Pull enemies arm up, under hand knife strike to the ribs…

Mikey was rolling through the kata robotically, Leo had noticed. His stances were somewhat narrower than they should have been which was bad for balance, and his punches were curving outwards to the sides some which would make them easy to block. His mind must have been elsewhere for him to make such careless mistakes.

Leo decided to push the thoughts of his brother's kata out of his mind and then he went about perfecting his own form. His side kicks were a tad bit to high near the end of the kata anyway, and that needed to be fixed.

Meanwhile the orange clad turtle's thoughts, like Leo had guessed, were elsewhere. The wheels of creativity were turning in his head clouding out any other reality.

He had been hit by a wave of inspiration that morning, but unfortunately it came the moment he stepped into the dojo. Which was bad because it was one of those waves of inspiration that demanded paper be found and drawn upon. There wasn't much he could do about it though so he kept repeating the image in his head so it was engraved there and would not be forgotten.

And even though Mikey desperately wanted to get it down on paper, he still had at least 45 minutes of afternoon practice left (normally practice was in the morning but Master Splinter let them sleep in on Wednesdays). They were just finishing a new kata their master had taught them (Ryu san was number 42 or something like that. There were like 108 and initial forms they needed to learn). They hadn't even started taijutsus yet!

He really needed to get this picture out of his head before his head exploded! He didn't want his head to explode! He needed it!

Raph would beg to differ.

"Michelangelo!"

Whap

"Ow! What?" He rubbed his head fervently where wooden cane met tender, green flesh.

"You were performing the kata backwards," Master Splinter stated with exasperation.

"Eh?" He blinked slowly and looked down at himself. He was standing in front stance with his left arm out in a punch. All of his brothers, however, where standing in a shikadachi down blocking.

Wow. How the heck did that happen?

"My Son, your mind wanders. In the heat of battle a distracted mind can be as dangerous as any weapon that can be thrown at you. You must keep your senses sharp, your mind quieted, your objectives focused. This is why we practice kata. When performing your forms, you do not simply stop at the movement's end. You must imagine that there is an actually enemy before you and you must strike as such. When you attack, attack as if you were striking _through_ an enemy. When you block, imagine you are being attacked and deflect the enemy's' movement like your life is in danger, for this may one day save your lives. Begin the kata again. Ryusan! Ski! Begin!"

Mikey groaned. Why wasn't practice over yet? He couldn't imagine enemies! What if his imaginary enemies decided to be mean and run off with his awesome art idea?

Whap.

"Ow!" his sensei was giving him the look. No words needed to be spoken. "How many?"

"30," came the curt reply.

"Yes, Sensei." Mikey went off into the corner of the dojo and began to do his flips.

0000000000000

It was finally done. He grinned proudly.

He had managed to survive practice even though his arms were tingling from all of the flips. In the end he had done a grand total of 108 of them. Master Splinter figured that maybe a divine number incorporated into his punishment would get the lesson home. Mikey just wanted to know why the people who made martial arts were so obsessed with the number 108.

After practice he made a beeline for his room, instantly located his sketch book and his soft graphite pencils and set off to work. The picture had taken a long time to finish since so much detail had been incorporated, but it was worth it because his master piece was finally finished. It was the best thing he had ever drawn. He poured everything he had into the image; all of his skills, heart and soul.

He couldn't wait to show everyone! Happily, he grabbed his sketchbook and tore off to find his brothers.

0000000000000

So far his experiment was going smoothly, Don thought as he placed a now empty vile onto the shelf above his workspace. It was where his other chemicals were being held so they'd be in easy reach.

The liquid was beginning to cool down showing that the endothermic reaction was occurring as it should. Taking a small teaspoon, he measured out some light blue powder and gently started tapping it into the now purple liquid. With each puff of powder the liquid cleared a little more.

He had to be very careful that he didn't add too much or it would ruin the whole solution. He had to be focused on exact measurement. He slowly leaned closer and closer to the graduated cylinder so he'd get a better look at the reaction and how much powder he was using. His beak was almost touching the glass.

It took precision. It took focus. It took concentration and a keen eye.

A voice chose that moment to thunder from behind.

"HEY DONNY!" It boomed. "I've got somethi-"

"EEEE!" In shock Donny reeled back dropping the spoon into the liquid while his other hand slammed accidentally into one of the vials on his shelf. It was an oil filled glass with some kind of rock sitting on the bottom and quickly the entirety of it, and it contents went spilling into the solution below with a sickening plop. Donny could only stare at it in horror. _'No! What was that?'_ Frantically he picked up the empty container and read.

"Na… Sodium." He looked in horror to see the tiny chunk of the metal sitting at the bottom of the cylinder.

His mind speedily began comprehending the situation. Sodium reacts with water to form Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrogen Gas. The reaction produces a lot of heat, which is sufficient to melt the metal, and to his horror a reaction _was_ forming between the metal and the liquid. If the reaction scaled up further the molten metal would start to boil. _'That would cause the boiling metal to break apart and thus increase its surface area, which would, in turn, speed up the reaction rate. The faster the reaction the more heat produced. That would cause the Hydrogen Gas to ignite and that would cause...' _"GET DOWN!" Don dive bombed Mikey shoving him to the ground.

BOOM!!

Coughing and hacking Michelangelo and Donatello cleared out of the smoldering lab. Both of their faces were covered in soot and Mikey's eyes were watering from the smoke. "Jeez, Don (cough cough)! You've gotta' be a bit more (hack) careful." He rammed his fist into his chest a few times to assist his coughs in removing the invading black substance inside. Don was glaring at him. "You could've blown us up to Kaboom Kingdome."

"What do you (wheeze) want, Mikey? If you're asking me whether or not you can help, the answer's no. The VCR still makes toast from the last time." He wiped his face fervently with a cloth that had been tucked in his belt.

"No, that's not it. I wanna show you something," came the cheery reply.

"Is it important?"

"Well, I think it is."

"Is it _life threateningly_ important?"

"Well… No not really."

"Then show me later. I've got a lot of work to do." He walked back into his smoke filled lab before running out again hacking. After clearing up the smoke from his lungs he gave a deep sigh. "I guess I could work on the battle shell. The oil needs to be checked and the clutch master cylinder has been acting strange. I was also meaning to modify the shell cells…" Don walked off muttering about all the things needing to be fixed in the garage.

Mikey watched him go and sighed, clutching his sketchbook dejectedly to his plastron.

"Well, that did not go as planned," Mikey mumbled. Suddenly, his eyes brightened and his face split into a grin. Any disappointment that had been there was instantly erased. "I know who I could show!" and he ran off in the direction of the living room.

0000000000000

Raph groaned, leaning over the arm of the couch. He let his unoccupied arm flop while his other arm covered his eyes.

He was so tired.

Last night he had been out all night with Casey. They busted up some hooligans, Casey went bat-happy and then they headed to Casey's place to get acquainted with a little friend named 'Jack Daniels.'

Man was he hating life.

He was surprised that he had survived through training without falling asleep. He had already gotten over the minor effects of the small hangover but he was so sleepy. He left Casey's at around three, arrived back home at 3:30 and then was wakened up by Leo at 6:00am. He had thrown his alarm clock at Leo yelling, 'what's the point of having one when I have fearless leader to personally get me up each morning?!'

Leo had dodged swiftly. His alarm smashed against the wall. Don grumbled about having to fix it, Mikey laughed at him, he had to go to training despite being borderline comatose and life continued on.

But since that was over it was time to catch up on some Z's. He would've done it earlier but the urge to replace the tires on his bike was one too strong to ignore. Still, if he slept now he would be refreshed by the time they had to go out patrolling. He began to close his heavy eyelids, slowly drifting off when suddenly footsteps came thundering in. _'Nooo. Not now!'_ Raph took the couch pillow and yanked it over his face in annoyance.

"Hey Raph I wanna sho-" CRACK. "EEP!" Mikey turned his head to see one of Raph's Sai embedded deeply in the wall next to his head. Raph was glaring at him. The dark purple bags under his eyes made it all that much scarier.

"Righto! I was just leaving!" He quickly changed direction, and using his infamous speed, disappeared.

Raph sighed. "Gotta nip these things in the bud sometimes…ugh." He readjusted the pillow so it was underneath his head and quickly fell asleep.

And as the older brother drifted off Mikey stood outside of the door wondering what had just happened. Raph, apparently, was not in a particularly good mood. Not that he ever really was but at least they normally bantered for a while before he started throwing sharp metal objects at his head.

His excitement was dwindling. But there was still hope! One last room to check. Off to the dojo!

000

Slowly bring hands to left side, left palm enclosing right fist. As hands move into position, bring left foot to right. Step forward with left treading step. Plant the left foot and step through with right foot behind with reinforced back fist to head.

Breathe in breath out. Focus the breath on each movement. Breathe out with hard movements, breath in with soft movements.

Pivot to opposite direction in left fore-balance with overhead block and reverse hammer fist. Shorten stance with right side block; bring left fist to chamber.

Breathe in breath out. Imagine you're striking through the enemies. Attack like someone is threatening you. Hit through them.

Pivot to opposite direction in right fore-balance with left fore arm block. Shorten stance with right side block. Bring right foot through to opposite direction in straddle stance with low hammer fist. Shorten stance and come up with back fist strike.

Breathe in breath out. Block like your evading an actual enemy's attack. Practice like your life is in danger.

Bring right foot up to cat stance with right forearm block. Bring left fist up through center with uppercut toward front. Shift left fist and drive hips into strike as it turns into hooking strike. Feet end up parallel to each other

And make sure those low kicks aren't too high this time! Concentrate!

Bring right foot back behind left, ending up in left cat stance with knife hand block. Pivot and turn left foot outward and bring left fist to chamber; right palm hand reaches across body low to trap. Bring right knee up to break; follow through with sidekick to knee. Refold kick strongly and land facing opposite direction in left cat stance with knife hand block…

"GAH!" a voice cried. Leo's hand landed a hair's width away from Mikey's clavicle.

"Uh hey there Leo! Ya mind pointing that thing somewhere else?" Michelangelo asked while pointing to Leo's outstretched knife hand.

Leo closed his eyes in frustration.

'_Focus broken,_' he thought bitterly. "Mikey what are you doing in here? I highly doubt it's to practice and you're breaking my concentration. What do you want?" He folded his arms.

"I wanna show you the picture I drew!" He smiled happily lifting his sketchbook into the air.

"Well, if that's it, leave me be. I'm practicing that kata Master Splinter taught us and I'm trying to perfect it, just like _you_ should be doing. Show it to me later."

"But it'll only…"

"Later, Mikey. If you want you can stay here and train more too. You're the only one that didn't get the kata this morning."

Mikey's face fell. "I was distracted. I really wanted to finish my drawing…"

"See that's the problem Mikey… You're too unfocussed." He then began the kata once more, quickly back into deep thought, a level of profound focus. Master splinter called it one of the three minds of martial arts, _Fudoshin;_ immobile mind (unaffected by anything external). Leo was dead to the world outside of the one he was fabricating in his kata.

"Ok then. I'll just go somewhere else." With that Mikey walked dejectedly off.

0000000000000

They all had different ways of showing disappointment.

Raph would break stuff (or people) until his steaming temper cooled and he felt better.

Don would engulf himself with work to distract him from the problem.

Leo would keep it all inside and let it breed until finally the dam broke and it was all let loose (normally through an argument with Raph)

Mikey, however, pouted and moped, wearing his misery on his sleeve.

Master Splinter had made him feel a bit better earlier by looking at his picture, but he wanted _all _of his family to see it.

So he continued to mope.

And he did so up until Leo wandered into his room, his other brothers close behind.

"Mikey it's time for our patrol. We have to go."

Mikey didn't budge. He just continued to wear his pathetic woes-I look on his face.

"Mikey what's wrong?" Leo asked somewhat concerned. A silent Mikey was never a good thing.

"None of you looked at my picture." He gave pitiful glare that made Raph snicker.

"You hung up about that still?" Raph was fully awake _now_.

Was that it? Leo gave an exasperated sigh. "Look Mikey we were all busy. It just wasn't a good time."

Mikey grumbled about it only taking five seconds.

Leo frowned. He didn't like it when Michelangelo was miffed with them. It wasn't right with the Force. "Look when we get back from our patrol we'll all look at your picture. How about that?"

Mikey's face lit up.

"Well what are we waiting for! Let's go!" He swiped up his chucks and plowed past his brothers.

Mikey bounced back fast.

Before he could get too far Donatello grabbed him by the back of his shell and yanked him back."Wait guys before we go, I made some changes to our shell cells!"

Don let go of Mikey and fished around in his bag. After finding them he handed one of the green phones to each of his brothers.

"It…doesn't look that different," Leo stated, looking at the phone.

"Flip is open." Don waved his hand.

Leo did so. "I still don't see what I'm looking…Wait, what's this blue button?"

"It's a panic signal. If any of us are in trouble all you have to do and push the button and it'll alert the others. It also sends out a signal that can be tracked," Donny explained.

"Huh. I'm impressed." Leo grinned and tucked it away in his belt.

"Come on guys!"Mikey jumped in. "Daylight's burning! I mean night lights burning. Well night doesn't have light so it can't really burn… Night's freezing then? Wait, that doesn't make sense though… Would it be…?"

"Mikey. Shuddup. Le's just go."

000

Patrol went smoothly actually. They had one little skirmish with a few Purple Dragons that went without incident. Well, almost without incident.

Raph's skull felt like it had been run over by a steamroller. Don said he didn't have a concussion or anything, but there would be a rather nasty bruise on his forehead for a while.

They had seen some Purple Dragons mugging some guy who looked like a nerdy college student. Things started normally: wimpy high school dropouts with their chains and crowbars, talking trash, and then said wimpy drop outs getting their asses handed to them. But something new happened.

Raph cornered one of the kids, one with lethally pointy blue hair (the hair probably would have been a better weapon the lame small hammer the kid had), and was gonna get him but something that usually didn't happen occurred.

The kid momentarily grew a backbone and threw a brick at him.

A freaking brick! He had been so surprised by this he actually got hit by it. Mikey knocked the kid out, went to check on Raph, and then proceeded to laugh his ass off.

The fact that Raph smacked him over the head giving him a matching mark made him feel somewhat better though.

"My head…Damn brick throwing hoodlums," Raph groussed.

"Don't worry, Raph. We'll be home soon and we can get you some ice for that. Getting back's the easy part." Leo pat his brother on the shoulder, but Raph simply shrugged him off in annoyance. So they continued their journey home.

After reaching the top of the building that was right across the street from their destination, they stopped and stood dumbstruck.

"You have _got_ to be kiddin' me," Raph hissed in disbelief, breaking the silence.

The building next to the manhole they needed to get to was on _fire_.

'_No!'_ Mikey inwardly screamed. He had been waiting all day to show his siblings the picture he worked so hard on. He couldn't wait any longer. Darn you building! Couldn't you combust somewhere else?

The four stood in awe at the rising piers of flames. They could feel the heat coming from the burning building from their positions on the roof. The building's ancient frame creaked like bones snapping, as the brick façade skin began to crumble under the extreme heats. Fire fighters were desperately trying to put the fire out with heavy jets of water to no avail. The building probably couldn't be saved.

"Umm, how did we not notice that?" Don piped up referring to the billowing acrid smoke clouds and the hot, orange glow coming from the pillars of flames.

Leo felt that something wasn't right. Something about the burning building just felt off. However, his thoughts did not linger on the matter for he had to turn his attention to a different matter.

"We can't get into the sewers from here." Leo sighed looking at all of the wide eyed people in the streets below as they stared in morbid fascination at the collapsing building.

"Well great. Everyone on the whole stupid street and their Grandma's out." Raph groaned.

"They probably are evacuating everyone just in case the fire gets out of hand. These building are kind of old. It would make sense that the fire could jump to the other apartments," Don guessed.

"You don't think that…people were in there do you." Mikey looked at the building with sad eyes as the roof collapsed.

His brothers responded with a unhappy quiet.

"We're going to have to take the scenic route and go completely around this street," Leo said breaking the silence.

"Scenic. Nice. I hear the graffiti is quite colorful around this time of year," Mikey cheerfully responded. Inside though, he just really wanted to get home_, 'So my bros can see my masterful art piec.,_' He split a grin at this thought.

"Isn't there something closa'? I am in dire need of an aspirin or two…Or twenty." The second oldest rubbed his throbbing temples. His headache spiked up from throb to jackhammer.

"The menu consists of two items, Raph. Take it or leave it."

Red glared at blue at this comment but didn't respond with more than a shrug. He was not in the mood for their daily Leo vs. Raph blowout.

Leo was slightly surprised at his brothers, dare say docile, attitude.

Maybe Raph needed to be hit by bricks more often.

"You know," Don started, contemplation behind his eyes, "I could come up with a way to rig one of…"

"No Don." Raph cut him off before he really had a chance to begin. "I've got a head ache and wanna go home the simple, quick and easy way. It's not like we ever understand what comes outa your mouth anyways."

"Intellect is invisible to the man who has none," Donny snapped quickly.

Silence.

"D'you jus' call me stupid?"

Mikey snickered. Leo sighed. Maybe there _was_ an argument bubbling inside of Raph wanting to get out, but perhaps it would be directed toward someone _else_ for a change.

"Well I don't see any of you coming up with any ideas," was the agitated reply from Donny as he sent a glare in each of their directions.

"Whoa dude. I have plenty ideas." Mikey raised his hands defensively; "They all suck though."

"Look, guys, this is a really delicate situation." Leo started heading to the other side of the building. "Be very careful. There are a lot more people out than usual. We need to be unnoticed. No commotion. No theatrics. We just need to get home."

The sooner the better too. Something did not feel right. There was a horrible feeling hanging in the air like something bad was following them. He felt something tap his shoulder and he looked in surprise to see Raph. His younger sibling was giving him a look that stated, 'Ya feelin' it too, huh?' Leo nodded. If Raph, the most instinctive of them all, could tell something was up, something was up.

It was now a matter of avoiding it and getting to safety.

0000

"Sewer sweet sewer!" Mikey yipped.

It had taken a couple more minutes then it would've had they been able to take the direct route, but the manhole cover was now in sight. The journey had been a harrowing one though. Mikey had almost got run over by a fire truck (his mind was elsewhere more than usual today), Raph's headache had elevated from dull nails being hammered into his skull to power drill, Don was still irked by the quick dismissal of his wonderful plan (it involved an intricate pulley system and catapulting), and Leo was in shock that no fights had broken out despite the odd tension.

But he wasn't in that much shock because he knew all of his brothers were on edge focusing on the strange presence hanging in the air. Besides getting home, that's where all of their attention was.

Well, most of his brothers anyway.

"Yes! Now when we get home you guys have got to see what I've been working on!" Mikey bellowed happily. Don and Raph gave apathetic sighs. Leo didn't take any notice as his senses heightened.

Something wasn't right. "Mikey hush for a sec," Leo whispered raising a hand to indicate silence as he tried to listen to his surroundings. Raph and Don both also tensed, but Michelangelo remained oblivious.

"What? Why? Is something wrong? Eh it's probably just a rat or cat. Come on guys let's get home I really want to show you this thing!"

"Mikey, shut up for a moment!" Raph said harshly, straining his hearing over Mikey's voice.

"I'm telling you guys you're being paranoid." The youngest started walking backward to the manhole cover. "Come on! I've been waiting all day! I think you'll really..."

"Mikey, stop!" Leo yelled.

"What? What fo…" He discontinued his journey as he felt a strange spike of heat behind him. It was followed by a slight uncomfortable pressure resting on his jugular. In shock he realized there were two, razor sharp Kunai crossed in an X and pressed to his throat.

"Would not move," a thick smoky voice came from behind. It was a ninja.

Leonardo looked on in horror. This ninja was dressed as a traditional Foot soldier only with extra armor on his shoulders, hips, chest, and calves. A large traditional Japanese straw hat was obscuring half of his already clothed face.

It was an elite.

'_When did that happen?!'_ Mikey's mind screamed in disbelief. Getting over the initial shock of someone being able to sneak up on him, he realized he could not move. Both of his arms were incapacitated, a ninja holding each one with a Kunai to his wrists. Also, to his horror, both of his legs were tightly locked by two other ninjas. Both of who had sharpened knives pressed lightly but threateningly up against the pulsing arteries located on the back of his knees.

He couldn't move or he would be sliced to ribbons.

They had all noticed they were in danger. His brothers picked up on it right away. Yet his guard had been down, and that's all it took. In less than 3 seconds he was being held down by five people, all of which had lethal objects skimming five vital points on his body. If they were all cut, if _any _of them were cut, that would surely mean death.

His heart skipped a beat and jumped into his throat as he realized something.

'_They could have just killed me. I could have been dead 30 seconds ago.'_

"MICHELANGELO!" Leo screamed sliding his swords out of their scabbards ready to decapitate the offenders. Raph screamed in anger. He whipped out his Sais, ready to charge the five attackers that were risking his brothers' safety. Donatello readied his Bo staff expertly and took an aggressive stance.

"Teishi." The dark ninja said in a commanding voice, "Do not move. Kiku. Listen. Do not listen, mattaku kiku nai, and turtle shall be gutted," he said in broken English. Leo quickly evaluated the situation.

The enemies' weapons were all touching Michelangelo's skin. They were too close to important arteries to risk jostling. It would be difficult to debilitate five enemies when they had a hostage in such a situation. One wrong move or one badly executed attack would mean…

"Don't move," Leo whispered quietly to his brothers. Raph growled.

"What the hell, Leo? We can't jus' sit and do nothin'…" His angry whispers were halted quickly by a look from his older sibling.

"Shut up, Raph," he hissed. "I'm aware but there's no way to attack without Mikey getting hurt." He turned to the man behind Mikey. "What do you want!?" Leo did not need to see the man's face to know that he was probably grinning.

Mikey groaned. He was being used as freaking leverage! How could he be so stupid to get in this situation? All he wanted was to get home and show his brothers that picture. He had just been so distracted by it.

He had been distracted.

Distracted. _'Oh.'_ He had answered his own question.

The ninja holding the Kunais to Mikey's throat began to speak rapidly in Japanese.

"Wakari-masen. Ima, eego de hanase. (1)," Leo growled through clenched teeth. Out of the four he was the strongest in Japanese and even he was not very far past simple conversation in it.

The man stopped and seemed to ponder the translation of what he had said into English.

"Discard all your weapons to ground. Step back after." He decided upon.

Mikey's eyes snapped open. Their weapons were their most important and prized possessions! Each one had been handcrafted by master Splinter and had been given to them when they were young! There was no way his brothers would…

Thunk.

Mikey looked with wide eyes at seeing how quickly Raph had thrown his Sais onto the ground at the stranger's request.

'_Raph._' a lump was forming in his throat. His eyes began to sting.

K-Kling.

'_Leo's swords.'_

Clatter.

'_Don's Bo.'_

Michelangelo wanted to tell them to stop. That their weapons weren't worth it but the words choked and died in his throat. He was too scared at the thought of dying. _'I don't want to die. Not like this._' He clenched his eyes shut.

Raph glared up to the man and spat the two phrases he knew really well in Japanese, "Kisama! Koro shite yaru! (2)," The ninja was unfazed.

One ninja with cat like grace appeared before the three and gathered their weapons carefully in a bundle. Leo stared pensively at the ninja, his eyes swirling with emotions. Raph's knuckles were turning white from him clenching his fists so hard, and his jaw was shut tightly enough to crack teeth. Donatello simply looked away, attempting to detach himself from his beloved Bo staff.

'_What are they doing? Why are they…" _Leo's thoughts wandered.

"We thank you for your cooperation. Arigatou- gozaimasu." The ninja gave a quick head nod from his position behind Mikey. Quickly he drew both of his kunai away from Mikey's neck and kicked him forward. And like the wind he and the other foot ninja vanished. It was as they had never been there at all.

"Jigoku ni ike!(3)" Raph screamed into the wind, his voice carrying after the ninja though he himself did not follow.

"They just took our weapons and left," Don said in disbelief.

Mikey was on all fours looking at the ground with wide eyes his mind reeling at what had happened.

His brothers' weapons had just been stolen and it was his fault. Mikey's eyes trailed down his own plastron to see both of his nunchaku were still tucked safely into his belt.

His brothers lost their weapons because of him while he still had his. Guilt was beginning to fill him.

He raised his head to look at his siblings. _'Guys I'm so sorry,_' he wanted to say but he couldn't find the words in his throat.

None of them were looking at him. His gaze instantly went back to the ground.

"Guys?" His voice came out hoarse, barely above a whisper.

"DAMNIT!!" Raph roared. Mikey flinched. "You stupid idiot! We were telling ya ta shuddup but you kept runnin' you're freakin trap like a moron! How could you have gotten caught like that!? You're a NINJA for Christ's sake so GROW THE HELL UP AND ACT LIKE ONE! We lost our weapons 'cause of your stupid careless ass! I lost MY _SAIS_! I just wanna…AAARGH!!" Raph kicked the nearest thing (Mikey was glad it was not him), a trashcan, sending it at least five feet in the air where it landed several feet away with a large dent concaving the side, "DAMN IT!" he screamed.

Raph's words wrapped around him like a suffocating shroud seeping into his every being. Mikey had not once looked up through the berating. He couldn't face any of them.

"Raph stop," Leo muttered with little authority in his voice. "All that matters is that Mikey's safe."

Raph turned around quickly staring up at the clouded sky, his hands holding the sides of his head. His headache escalated to a full blown migraine. "I do not even wanna look at you, Mikey," He growled.

"We need to get to master Splinter and tell him what happened. Something must be up for them to just want our…weapons. They must be planning something," Leo's voice carried softly to them all. There was an underlining of some emotion Mikey could not pinpoint.

Was it disappointment? Resentment?

Both?

"Leo?" He croaked softly. His eldest brother walked right past him.

"I can't believe this happened. Why didn't they take Mikey's chucks too?" Don put his face in both of his hands as followed Leo. He could here the sound of the metal man hole being lifted and his two brothers disappearing into the sewers.

Raph dropped his hands to his sides and began to follow his brothers retreating forms. However he stopped when he got next to Mikey. "You screwed up big Mikey. I'm not gonna let this go," his voice was dripping with malice. Leaving at that sour note he continued his trek before disappearing.

Mikey merely sat there. Misery and guilt sapped him of his strength making him lethargic. For the first time he slowly looked up, and something caught his eyes.

A glint of metal? Why did his brothers not notice it?

He crawled to it and picked it up. It was a card. The foot emblem was carved into the dark metal and painted over with crimson red paint. There were words carved in as well but they were so tiny he had to squint to read. 'Warehouse 431. Dock 12.' It was an address. One of the ninjas must have dropped it.

Mikey's agony lifted slightly as a few of the unused cogs in his brain began to creak to life. A plan was forming. He grabbed the metal and headed for the sewer.

"I can fix this." _'It couldn't be that hard could it??'_

Yet a voice in the back of his head was saying that nothing is ever as easy as it seems to be.

1. "I do not understand. Speak English now."

2 "Son of a bitch! I'm going to kill you!"

3 "Go to Hell!"

So how was the first chapter? Beginnings are never easy to write for some reason because you never know how to start them. But this has been really fun to write and I believe it will get better as it progresses.

So was it good bad? Constructive criticism is appreciated. Flames shall be used to roast marshmallows. Please review!

SL:


	2. Law 2

**Murphy's Second Law: Everything takes longer than you think.**

00000000000

Master Splinter waited patiently for his sons to return. Normally he would not fret over his sons nightly excursions. He trusted that their abilities were adequate enough and that they would be able to take care of themselves. Yet for some reason this night had filled him with unease.

He sat in a Lotus, a cup of cold oolong tea forgotten next to him, and his eyes were closed in deep thought. They would be here any minute. Just like always. There were no reasons to worry…

"Master Splinter?" Donatello's voice called over.

"Oh thank the heavens." Splinter let out a breath of relief at his sons return. He would be able to rest easier with all of them in his sight on such a foreboding night.

Raphael marched right past Splinter and stormed to the kitchen. Sluggishly Leonardo and Donatello followed through the door before sitting in a seiza position in front of their master.

Splinter did not like the looks on their faces in the least. "My Sons, what is wrong? Were any of you injured?" he asked with worry lacing his voice.

"Well, Raph got a brick thrown at him," Don muttered under his breath.

The aforementioned turtle angrily emerged from the kitchen holding a bag of frozen peas to his head. He stormed over next to Donatello before dropping to his knees like his brothers.

Splinter sighed. His second oldest son had fallen to one of the four "sicknesses" of martial arts: surprise.

"Sensei, right before we reached home we encountered a problem. Mikey was taken hostage," Leo began steadily.

Master Splinter's eyes widened. "Michelangelo? What has happened? Was he taken? Where is he?"

"I'm here sensei," a voice answered timidly. Michelangelo walked into the room eyes downcast before he took his place next to his brothers. He made an effort to keep his gaze to his knees.

Master Splinter took a breath of relief. However the presence of his four children did nothing to quell the trepidation in his soul.

"Leonardo, continue your tale then," he said while gazing at his youngest son with apprehension.

"They had him in a bad position. Weapons at the jugular, wrists, and arteries in his legs so there wasn't much we could do in the situation. The ninja, he ordered us to lay down our arms so we did, and they," he paused, "They took our weapons," Leo finished

"This is…" Splinter searched for the words. "Troubling."

"Sensei, I'm so sorry. As leader I should have searched for a better option. There could've been an alternative but I let the situation get the better of me… I wasn't thinking…"

"Hush my son. You did nothing wrong," Splinter silenced him. "You took your brother's life into account above your weapons. For that I am proud of you. I am proud of all of you," he said looking each one of his sons in the eyes until he fixated on Michelangelo.

"Michelangelo, raise your head," he commanded softly. Michelangelo looked up hesitantly.

"Explain to me how you got yourself into such a situation."

"I was distracted, Sensei." He could feel Raph's eyes trying to burn a hole through him. "I'm sorry."

Splinter did not know what to do with his youngest son. He was afraid that Michelangelo's wandering mind would be his down fall one day, and these events only reinforced that fear. How could one so attentive to details that were often overlooked be so blind to the greater picture sometimes? However, he did not want his youngest like this. So silent, so guilty…Wait.

The look in Michelangelo's eyes was not guilt. There was a glint of something there. It was not a particularly happy emotion but it was familiar.

Ah. Determination. What a strange emotion to display at such a time. What could possibly be going through his mind?

"I want to know why they just took our weapons. What do they accomplish by that? They could have easily attacked us the moment we were unarmed," Leo spoke up.

"What if… What if they wanted us to follow them? They took something of ours and knew we'd want to get it back," Donatello added in thought.

"My sons, I want you all to retire to your rooms. I will meditate on this matter further. Get some sleep for it has been a long night. Tomorrow we will plan for what we are going to do."

Slowly one by one each of his sons filtered out of the room. Michelangelo was at the back of the line giving the others some generous distance. As he passed, Splinter noticed that Michelangelo still had both of his nunchaku. His eyes widened. _'Why did they not take Michelangelo's weapons when they easily had him in the worst situation?'_

These events were very unsettling. He had a nagging feeling things were going to get very complex.

000000

The next day felt completely off kilter to Mikey.

His brothers were reacting to last night's incident exactly the ways he had expected them to.

Raphael was beating the living daylights out of his punching bag. The bottom of the poor thing was already being held together by duct-tape and didn't like it would survive the rage induced onslaught. He had actually knocked it off the chain twice already. After a steady string of curses, he'd fasten it back up to the hook on the ceiling and would begin pummeling it again. _'Raph breaks things to release his emotion.'_

Donatello was multitasking and unable to decide on a single project to work on. He started reading a book on nuclear fission but then became antsy. So, leaving his book open, he wandered into the lab to fiddle with some mechanical doohickey he was building, but then from there he decided that fixing the cooling unit of the Lair was far more important. He left the mechanical doohickey unfinished, tinkered around with the cooling system for a while before deciding he should finish his book, making full circle. _'Don keeps himself busy as a distraction.'_

Leo was in the dojo performing katas nonstop. It looked like he was going to do every single one they had ever learned all consecutively. He started out with the simple ones that they had all learned when they were younger. After he would finish one kata he would begin the one right after it. Out of all his brothers Leo appeared the calmest regarding the situation with their weapons. However, Michelangelo knew in all actuality, out of all his brothers, Leo was the most devastated by the loss of his weapons. He could see it in the blue clad turtle's eyes. _'Leo will keep things inside and let his emotion breed and fester.'_

Mikey, of course, observed this all from the safety of the shadows.

Mikey simply sat in his room not wanting to be seen by his brothers. He could tell they were all angry with him. Also, he had a nagging feeling that if he got caught in Raph's line of sight; his second oldest brother might tire of his punching bag and decide to break him instead.

That would be very bad because then he wouldn't be able to execute his plan.

He fingered the metal card in his hand. It was an inch in width and a half an inch in height. The address stamped on it was very tiny but readable.

He hadn't told his brothers he had a possible lead to their weapons. He wasn't going to either.

All night he had been formulating a plan using every bit of brain power he had. It would be difficult to fool three ninjas and a martial arts master so they wouldn't know what he was up too.

"I'm definitely going to fix this," he thought staring at the sketchbook lying on his bed next to him. Just then, someone knocked on his door.

"Mikey? Come on. We need to go to the living room. We're going to plan a way to get our stuff back." it was Leo.

Mikey did not make an effort to move. He heard his doorknob jiggle. Good thing he locked the door.

"Look, Mikey, it was an accident. You don't have to stay in your room. Come out." Leo did not sound very convinced of his own words, he was simply putting up the good leader front. The door handle was tried again. There was a growl of frustration. "Fine then, Michelangelo! Be selfish that way and just lock yourself up in your room for the rest of your life. Don't help get back _our_ weapons. Why would you need too, you have _yours_ already." Leo trudged of seriously irked.

Mikey was unfazed however. He knew his brothers were angry at him, yes, but he also knew none of them hated him. They would act coldly toward him, yell at him, give him malice filled glares, but that was because they were angry for their weapons. If they hated Mikey, they wouldn't have given up their arms for his safety in the first place. It was for this reason Michelangelo felt extremely bad. He felt responsible for them. Not only that, but he was the only one left _with_ a weapon. He'd be the only one who'd truly be able to defend himself against attackers effectively. It was for this reason he had to get them back.

And Leo's appearance at his door was exactly what he had been waiting for. "It's go time." He hopped off his bed and got his radio from under his nightstand. He set it on his bed next to his sketch book, stuck in a CD and turned it on. The volume was relatively low, but loud enough to hear if you were standing right in front of his door.

Checking to see his pads were tightened and his nunchucks were in place, he opened his bedroom door and locked it quietly behind himself.

Moving like a shadow in the candle light he silently headed the opposite direction Leo went and exited the Lair. His brothers and master would never realize he had left.

000000

"Leo, where's Mikey?" Don asked curiously.

"He's locked himself in his room," Leo said shortly.

"Who cares? We don't need the selfish bastard anyway," Raph growled.

Don sighed seeing his two seething brothers. He felt kind of bad for Mikey. He didn't ask to be taken hostage and it _was _their _own_ decisions to relinquish their weapons. However, Mikey, a trained ninja, should not have been as distracted as he was. He should have never gotten himself in that situation. But the past was the past. They could only make do with the cards they were dealt. "We need to find a way to track those ninja."

"And how do ya suppose we do that, Braniac?" Raph growled. "We've got no leads. I checked the alley this morning and it was clean."

"Well they looked like Foot ninja so if we find the Foot we find our stuff right?" Leo inquired.

"Not necessarily. There are several factions of the Foot in New York City alone. It would be insane to look everywhere. We need to find a way to isolate the specific group that did it. Not only that, but before we go after them we need to figure out why they were taken," Don pointed out.

"Perhaps we've overlooked something. They must have had a reason for taking them. To render us defenseless perhaps?" suggested Leo.

"I don't think that's it or they would have probably just attacked us and killed Mi…" Donny stopped himself before finishing that phrase. A strange expression washed past his two brothers' faces. Like a realization was hanging off the edge of their minds and they did not want to acknowledge it. Yet as quickly as the expression came it was gone. "It's going to take us a while to find them," he quickly changed the subject.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes. We jus' need ta figure out a way ta find out where our weapons are."

000000

Mikey had a good idea on where the weapons were. Slowly, he crept along the wall of one of the buildings keeping to the shadows. He peered over the edge to see the location he was searching for.

It had taken him longer than he thought to find the building since it was one of hundreds that were all lined up systematically. It didn't help that they all looked the same.

It was an old abandoned factory. Grim and dirt clung desperately to its walls and trash was strewn around the vicinity. A large rusted chain link fence surrounded the building to keep anyone who might, for some crazy reason, want to come to this old collapsing death trap out. In addition it smelled like low tide from being so close to the water.

What the hell was it with evil dudes and abandoned building? Why couldn't they ever just rent a timeshare in Florida or something?

As far as he could tell there weren't any ninja-esque activities going on outside of the building, but that did not mean no one was inside.

Maybe this would be easier than he thought. The plan was to get in, get the weapons and then get home. It would be nothing more than a brief reconnaissance mission.

'_Nothing fancy. No theatrics,' _Mikey took a step forward and halted. '_I'm starting to sound like_ _**Leo**__. How's that for weird?"_

He easily cleared the chain link fence with an acrobatic jump. From there, he quietly skulked along the crates and other large bulking objects. He was trying his best to stay in the darkness they cast. The closer he got to the building without incident, the more his spirits rose. So far so good! If it continued like this he would be back before anyone knew he was gone.

Suddenly, his instincts kicked in and he jumped just in time to avoid being impaled by several senbon, throwing needles. He looked to see two dozen foot ninja staring at him with large yellow eyes.

He was surrounded. "Well there goes being inconspicuous," he murmured as they lunged for him.

Mikey easily knocked several of them out with his nunchakus in swift, circular motions. These ninja were being really sloppy, obviously not well trained. In fact, he could have fought these guys all day but he did not have the time for that.

So he took off running like the speed demon he was. There were only a few ninja left but they took chase directly behind him.

Mikey rammed himself up against the frail, thin aluminum door of the building, easily snapping through any rusted chains and locks that may have been keeping the doors closed. Blindly he ran through the dark corridor until he came up to an extremely large room.

It was crawling with Foot ninja.

Suddenly he felt his plan of going alone had not been a very good idea after all. "Aw, damn it."

The ninja attacked.

So for the next fifteen minutes he fought valiantly against the ninja it started to take a toll on him. They just wouldn't die! They were like cockroaches: no matter how many times you stepped on them, they kept coming back! He didn't know how long he would be able to keep this up.

His hands were sweating and he was breathing heavily. After knocking two more out with an over head strike followed by a reversal he fled.

He ended up in a hallway (he had no idea how he even got there or how to get back) luckily with no ninja. But he knew they were looking for him. Every turn he took, or door he ran through there had been several Foot waiting for him.

He couldn't do this! He had never gone up against so many enemies alone before. He never realized on how much he depended on his older brothers to watch his back before. What was he thinking? He needed help!

Quickly, while he had a moment of ninjaless peace, he flipped open his shell cell and saw the small blue button Don had recently installed. All he had to do was push the panic button on his phone and his brothers would surely instantly come to his aide! They would save him for sure. They would…

Save him.

Mikey stopped and looked at the phone. He couldn't have them rescue him. Then his plan would be for nothing, his siblings would be angrier at him and he wouldn't be able to prove anything at all.

Sighing he started to close the phone. However, before he could close it shut a shuriken flew out of absolutely nowhere and smacked it out of his hand. It landed buttons down and the panic button activated.

"What? No! That's what I was trying not to do!"

Mikey gaped at it like a fish. He fixated on flashing blinking blue light going off on his phone before whirling around to see a dazed ninja behind him. It had been one he thought he knocked out already. _'SEE?! Like cockroaches!'_

Mikey quickly picked up a piece of rubble from the ground and pitched it at the ninja beaning him square on the forehead. He didn't wait to see the man fall knocked out cold as he dived desperately toward his blinking phone.

000000

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Raph nearly jumped out of his skin at the frenzied noise. He looked around to see his phone, a blue light blinking frantically. "Don! What the hell? My shell cells goin' off like a car alarm!"

"Mine too. Is it supposed to blink like this?" Leo's phone had been on the table and was steadily vibrating itself toward the edge. Don looked puzzled a moment before realization dawned on his face.

"That's the distress alarm. One of you guys must have pushed the panic button."

"Mine wasn't even on me," Leo held his hands up.

"I wasn't touchin' mine," Raph murmured.

"It wasn't mine so it must be Mikey's phone then," Concluded Donny.

"MIKEY! TURN YOUR DAMN PHONE OFF!" Raph's voice boomed down the Lair's corridors. He was answered with silence. "Damn, I'll make you turn the dumb thing off." He violently pushed away from the table and made a warpath for Mikey's room.

Leo looked like he wanted to follow to make sure Raph didn't render the youngest of their clan limb from limb. He didn't move though.

They could hear Raph yelling at the door. It didn't seem like he was getting much of a response though.

"Is he asleep?" Leo asked.

Don wasn't sure. He flipped his own phone open to check where the signal was coming from.

000000

Stupid signal.

"How do I turn you off? Come on Mr. Phone! Please quiet! Please with sugar?! Lot's of sugar! With rainbows and puppies on top or something! Turn _OFF _Damn it!" Mikey frantically started pushing buttons but the blue light kept on flashing desperately.

This couldn't go on. If he didn't do something soon his brothers would find out where he was, come save him and then this whole spiel would have been for nothing. He couldn't let that happen.

So before his logic could react impulse took over and he smashed the small green phone into the wall as hard as he could. Pieces of green plastic, thin brittle metal and shards of microchips clattered to the floor.

Mikey sat dumbly for a moment looking at the smoking pile of shards and dust in his hands. "Whoops." Well the beeping had stopped.

"There he is!" A voice called from behind. Mikey yipped and began running again with three ninja on his heels.

00000

The signal stopped instantly.

"That's weird. You're not supposed to be able to turn the panic signal off," Don said. He designed it so it would keep going until help arrived.

"Did you see where it was coming from?" Leo asked.

"I didn't get a chance too. The signal disappeared before I could look but I might still be able to trace it." He walked over to the desk and slid one of the drawers open producing a laptop. After turning it on, he attached a cable to his shell cell then attached that to the computer. "I'm going to trace the signal residue left behind and figure out where it was coming from."

Leo felt uneasy. "Kay. I'm going to go check on Mikey with Raph." He stood up and walked down the hall.

00000

At the end of the hall there was an elevator! Sweet salvation! Mikey gave a mighty leap landing right in front of the door.

"Going down!" He pushed the downward facing arrow and the doors open. He quickly leapt inside. Yet, as the door was closing one of the ninjas that had been following him grasped it and forced it open.

The ninja was expecting to see the turtle but there was no one in the elevator. He stood in the door for a moment before shrugging. One of the other ninja came up to him and spoke.

"We have all been ordered to vacate the premises now. The first objective has been completed," He said in a gruff tone. The man holding the elevator door open nodded and left letting the doors close.

'_Wait, they're just __**leaving?**__'_ Mikey thought in disbelief. The second he had entered the elevator, he had jumped up through the escape shaft so he was sitting comfortably on top. From his position he could hear the word exchange below. He didn't know whether he should have been overjoyed or insulted. Did they really think he was so little of a threat to let him run rampant around their little creepy warehouse?

And was it just him, or did that seem way too easy? The ninja hadn't even checked to see if he went through the escape route! Surely, they would have known he had gone up there.

…

Wait. What if they did know he was hiding on top of the elevator and deliberately ignored him…How rude.

He climbed back down into the elevator just as it opened. Cautiously, he wandered out still vigilant just in case there were still ninjas.

There were not. So he continued his journey.

000000

Raph ended his journey through the Lair at Mikey's room. He could hear a song playing through the door.

Mikey had a weird-ass taste in music, Raph decided. At one moment Mikey would be listening to System of the Down; head-banging to harsh beats, than the next track on his burned CD would be a Dave Mathews Band song. Nirvana would be blaring from his room one moment and the next it would be They Might be Giants. He could be flipping through the channels on the radio, settle for Blues, then the second the song was over he'd switch to the Spanish channel for some Latino Beats.

_'Even his taste in music is schizo,'_ Raph thought darkly. Yet as far as weird music, this definitely was up there on Mikey's odd tastes.

_Miya-hee  
Miya-hoo  
Miya-haw  
Miya-ha-ha_

"Mikey!" He banged on the door with his fist. "I know you're in there! Shut that stupid song off and get out here!"

_Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc,  
Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea.  
Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso,  
Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic,  
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic._

"Mikey, you are seriously pissin' me off," he raged through the door. "Get out here so Don can turn your phone off! You should be helping us get a way to get our stuff back instead of being emo in your dark corner anyways!" He fumed, "It was your fault we lost everything in the first place so you should at least be useful and do something to help us! Mikey? Say somethin'!"

_Vrei sa pleci dar numa, numa iei,  
Numa, numa iei, numa, numa, numa iei.  
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei,  
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai._

Raph growled in frustration at being ignored, and the weird song playing in the background added to it. What the frick did numa-numa mean anyway?

"Raph, he locked the door." Leo appeared beside him.

"You think I don't know that?" he spat at Leo. Quickly, turning his attention back to the door, he started yelling again, "MIKEY! I SWEAR IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR I'LL BREAK IT DOWN!"

"Raph I don't think that's a good…"

CRACK. With a front kick that would make Spartans proud the door snapped off its hinges and crashed onto the floor inside Mikey's room.

Leo pinched between his eyes. "Donny's going to be pretty mad late."

Raph gave him 'D'you think I care?' look and marched in.

"Mikey get your ass-" Raph stopped mid rant and looked around the room in surprise. His anger dissipated and it was replaced with mild confusion. He walked to Mikey's bed where the CD player was on; the repeat light was blinking on its digital face.

_Vrei sa pleci dar numa, numa iei,  
Numa, numa iei, numa, numa, numa iei.  
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei,  
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai._

"Where's Mikey?" He heard Leo's voice behind him, laced with anxiety. Quickly his elder brother was beside him looking around the room for any trace of the youngest. "He _has_ to be here. I haven't seen him anywhere else in the Lair! Where is he?"

_Miya-hee  
Miya-hoo  
Miya-haw  
Miya-hah (BANG)_

Leo shot Raph a look of annoyance as the red clad ninja raised his fist from where it had hit the CD player. Silence filled the Room.

"Was gettin' on my nerves," he deadpanned. "If this is Mikey's idea of hide n' seek I am seriously gonna to kick 'is ass later."

"GUYS! GET OVER HERE NOW!" Don's voice reverberated into the room, undertones of panic in his voice. Raph looked up and left the room in a flurry. Leo was about to follow but then he noticed something. There next to the radio on Mikey's bed was his sketch book.

'_He really wanted to show us that picture…'_ he eyed the book. Giving into a weird compulsion he grabbed the small book and tucked it safely into his belt before running to the living room where his other brothers were. Maybe Don knew where Mikey was.

00000

Mikey was in an immaculately clean hallway. It was a really weird place to find underneath an old collapsing warehouse. The walls glowed sickeningly bright from the florescent lights and it smelt strongly of cleaning solutions. There were several doors down the long hallway; each had a window on them. Most of the rooms were empty, except he did pass a set of double doors that had a monstrous lab type thing beyond them.

That was the first place he looked.

_'Don would get a kick out of this place,' _Mikey thought.

The room was spotlessly white with various machines that hummed and whirred. It actually looked more like a medical room with various vials of medicines and pills located on glass shelves. Scalpels, clamps and syringes hung up on the walls in sterile plastic casings. There was a large computer screen with a bunch of stuff opened on it, yet Mikey took no notice. There was no one inside of the lab. There were also no weapons.

After exiting the medical room he reached the door at the end of the hall. It had no window so he decided to go through it.

This room was several times larger than the others but it was also empty besides another door across the room. He decided to check that one too.

It was a storage closet. There didn't seem to be much in there other than mops, brooms, buckets and a glass case with, wait a cotton picking minute!

Jack pot! He wanted to jump for joy. All of his brother's weapons were lying in a heap inside the glass case.

His internal jig halted as realization hit. Something wasn't right. The weapons were just sitting there. Where were the guards? Was it rigged? There had to be a trap of some sort.

Mikey took a small shuriken and tossed it. It landed with a dull clink on top of the glass case.

No blaring alarms or swarms of ninja. That was always a good sign. Cautiously he crept silently to the case. He tapped the glass for good measures then broke into a grin. Confident that no Indiana Jones-esque deathtraps were going to befall him he shoved lid off gently and collected the weapons.

Raph's Sais were the first things he grabbed. Then he grabbed Donatello's bo and Leo's katanas. Well, in all actuality Leo's "Katanas" were actually ninjakin. It was sort of an inside joke that stuck to the two swords and had been around since they had first started using their weapons. He couldn't precisely remember all of the details and the incident was pretty fuzzy, but he definitely remembered Leo managing to bend both of his straight swords into awkward bow shapes (The incident was a rather ugly mark that marred Leo's perfect student record and he didn't like talking about it. Yet he stilled called his blades katanas anyway even though he knew that is not what they were).

Nevertheless, now was not the time to reminisce the past. He had to get the hell out of dodge before something bad happened.

Seeing a large brown cloth laying on the floor next to a mop, he gently wrapped his brother's weapons in it like they were made of glass. After tying the bundle shut, he gathered them into his arms and left the room.

Mikey was happy but something didn't seem right. It had been relatively easy getting in the building. Then, when he had a swarm of ninja after him, they had all given up chase and left the building leaving him alone. After that, he found the weapons that had been stolen earlier just lying there as easy pickings, making him wonder why they went through the trouble of stealing them in the first place. Oh well. It must have been as Master Splinter always told them.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." He exited the closet and walked into the Large room only to bump into something rather big. Something Really big. Huge actually. Rubbing his head, he stepped back to see what he ran into. If it had been physically possible, his jaw would have dropped to the ground.

He was now wishing he didn't break his phone.

0000000000

"I traced the signal. It _was_ from Mikey's phone," started Don. A light green map was on his computer.

"Well then where is 'e Don?" Raph crossed his arms.

"He's at the docks on the east side of the city. One of the warehouses is where the signal was last given off."

Leo's eyes snapped to Donatello in surprise at this piece of information

"How'd he get there? He's not running away is he? What could possibly make him leave like that?" Leo was losing his cool. Was Mikey okay? Why did he activate the panic signal?

Raph cracked his knuckles. "Yup. I'm definitely gonna kick 'is ass now," he declared matter-o-factly. The wimp was probably running away because of the guilt of losing their weapons.

"Whatever his reasons we should probably get him before he gets into trouble. Especially with those weird ninja out, who knows what could happen." Don pulled the USB port cable out of his phone, "Trouble has a habit of looking for Mikey."

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He was in huge trouble now.

There was no freaking way that thing was a human, Mikey concluded.

It was man shaped but it was bigger than Hun! Only it was much more ripped then Hun. For the most part it was covered from head to toe in lethal, sharp looking black armor that had been polished until it gleamed with a dark luster. Accents of silver peaked from the bottom of its steel toed boots, from the edges of blades that seemed to randomly protrude from it armor, and from the random screws that seemed to be holding the beast's protective covering together. His face was entirely masked in black showing no holes for eyes or a mouth.

It's blank, black mask creaked down to Mikey.

"_**Kame no shi**_." A Giant metallic voice rumbled into the room. Mikey jumped fully alarmed.

"What the heck does that…? Oh." He knew enough from Splinter to figure out that it roughly said 'dead turtle'. "Crap." He dropped the brown bundle he was carrying on the ground. His nunchakus were no longer in his belt but in his hands and spinning fast by the light movements given to them. He readied himself in a Shiko-dachi, horse stance, and grounded himself ready for anything the big lug could throw at him.

Said big lug then decided to reveal its weapon. There was a grinding screech of metal on metal as it was pulled from its sheath and then pointed at Michelangelo. It was constructed out of heavy oak wood, and covered with some form of metal from the end to the middle, with metal studs along the metal-shod end. It looked very, very heavy.

Mikey's jaw dropped.

Sometimes, when they were young, their master had told them tales from a tattered old book that had once belonged to master Yoshi. He told them Japanese fairy tales of great Oni whose terrible strength and sheer size allowed them to wield such a weapon as what was before him. It could be used to break enemies' armor and smash their warhorses' legs.

The goliath weapon was a tetsubo, and what was wielding it was as scary as any Oni from the stories.

"Aw, shell," Mikey whined fearfully.

Everything made sense now. Why the ninja's gave up chase after they had run him into the elevator, why they vacated the building, and why the weapons were in such a place as they were. They had cajoled him into this room with that _thing_.

Mikey gulped. It looked like his plan was going to take a lot longer than he originally intended.

It was time like these the orange clad turtle wished he could've gotten a weapon that did more damage than his chucks like, oh say… a bazooka would do nicely.


	3. Law 3

**Murphy's Third Law: in any field of endeavor, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.**

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One thought was running through Michelangelo's mind, _'I am sooo gonna die.' _

The menacing, dark figure was staring him down. Suddenly it creaked to life and began walking toward him. Michelangelo's blood froze and involuntarily took a step back.

He had to get rid of that thing before it could attack. _'Just knock it out with two hits, Mikey! You hitting it and it hitting the floor. You can do this!'_ He attempted raising his own morale. It wasn't necessarily working but with new resolve he lashed out his nunchaku in an over head strike putting all of the power his body could give him into bringing it down upon his enemy.

His attack never got passed mid-swing.

The long, iron club smashed into his arm so fast and hard his whole body was dragged backwards into the air by the arm that absorbed the impact of the blow. His wrist hit the wall awkwardly with a crunch, his whole arm collapsing on its self until finally, his shoulder slammed into the concrete, ending the carnage. His nunchuck was also not lucky enough to survive the blow. The wood snapped and smashed into pieces like brittle ice. He slid painfully down the wall landing on his knees in a bent position, and his splintered broken weapon clattered pitifully next to him.

For a split second his thoughts were whirling, a numbing confusion rushing through his mind. But then it was overwhelmed with the burning pain of his arm. The bone was shattered, the skin was beginning to bruise an angry purple spanning from the wrist to his shoulder, and there was blood dripping from tears caused from spikes that adorned the tetsubo.

He hunched over gripping his crushed elbow. It was bleeding from where bone fragments had pierced the skin from the inside and where iron points punctured skin. Yet no matter how excruciating the pain was he couldn't scream. His lungs constricted from the pain. Wild nerve endings were ablaze, almost stealing the air from his lungs to amplify the wild frantic inferno of their messages.

'_This. Really. Hurts!'_ His mind screamed at him as he attempted labored gasps of breath. _'How the hell did this happen!_' His mind raced. Hazily he then realized something. He had fallen to all four of the "sicknesses" of a martial artist. Fear, surprise doubt _and_ confusion all in the same 20 second span. Could you blame him though?

A crunching noise brought him out of his trauma induced funk. He looked up to see the monster that was the source of his current pain walking toward him slowly with deliberate, menacing steps.

'_Can't...Fight like this!'_ his mind was wild. Thoughts were rushing back and forth between the pain in his arm and the adrenaline that was screaming for fight or flight. As long as the pain was in his arm he couldn't focus. His thoughts were blurred and by the time he would be able to come up with a few coherent thoughts that monster would be upon him snapping him in half like a twig.

He completely threw all logical thoughts out of the window except for one mantra, _'Get rid of the pain.'_ And let instinct take over.

Wouldn't Master Splinter be so proud if he knew his scatter brained youngest son was using one of the three minds of Martial arts: _Mushin_; no mind (no need to think).

It was like he shut his brain off and switched it to autopilot. At least until the captain that was his mind could return refreshed and collected enough to think of a logical plan. Until then he would be fueled on instinct and the mantra his brain recently programmed.

Instinct was also quite clearly telling him to run for his dear life. So, after grabbing his brother's weapons with his right arm, that's what he did.

'_Get rid of the pain. Get rid of the pain.'_

The dark monster was far behind him, and it didn't seem like it was planning to move faster than its leisurely gait. This was good news to Mikey. That meant he had more time.

He slid as he made a sharp turn. It was hard to run with one arm flapping uselessly to the side. He felt like he wanted to cry badly, but the inferno of his nerve endings seemed to dry any tears he had welled up in their wake. His vision was beginning to blur and darken. His body was attempting to put itself in a self induced comatose to deal with the pain itself.

He had to hurry and get rid of the pain or else he would be done for.

And that's when he stumbled into the lab he had passed earlier. Across the room in his line of vision, he saw a massive glass case filled with bottles of every size filled with liquids of every color. He skimmed over the names of the different medicines, and that's when he saw it sitting there like someone had put it there just for him.

He ran up to the case so close that his beak almost touched the glass, and read the bottle that was eye level to him, "Prilocaine."

Somewhere in the dark recesses of his scattered, pain numbed mind he was able to conjure a memory. Don's voice began to fill his mind.

"_How the hell did you get a freakin pipe through your arm?!" Don was screaming at Raph. Boy was he mad too. Don didn't curse unless he was angry._

_Raph glared at him clutching a wound just below his elbow. A piece of jagged metal was sticking ou tawkwardly from between his fingers._

"_Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't able to redirect my fall inta that pile of metal crap that the Foot bastards rammed me inta'!" Raph yelled angrily before wincing. Don sighed in exasperation._

"_You know for having your arm __**impaled**__ with a piece metal, it actually doesn't look too bad. If it was anything worse I don't how much more I could do. You all know that the medical field is not my expertise." He wrapped a rubber bandage tightly above Raph's elbow making a tourniquet. _

_This also made Raph uneasy for what was about to come._

_"It went clean through and it somehow missed your ulna, radius and artery. I'll have to remove it before your body starts rejecting it or tries to heal around it." Don got out a small vile with a rubber top that was filled with clear liquid. Then he got out a syringe. _

"_No way in hell." Raph stated flatly, "This thing hurts enough as it is and I don't need ya ta stick me with a needle. Just yank the damn thing out and get it over with," Raph grumbled moving his arm away from the purple clad turtle._

"_Heh, heh. Raph's afraid of needles," Mikey chuckled as he rubbed some peroxide on a minor cut he received from the earlier skirmish._

"_Shut the hell up, Mike. As I remember it was you who was bawling when we had to get those tetanus shots." Raph snapped. _

_Mikey shut his mouth and went back to putting a band aide on his small wound._

"_Don't be such a baby, Raph," Don said pouring a liquid onto a cotton ball. He set the bottle down and picking up the vile he brought out. "This is prilocaine. It's a form of regional anesthesia that you inject into the veins of an extremity, your arm namely," he explained as he rubbed alcohol over a spot on Raph's arm. "It's an Intravenous block anesthesia that causes insensibility in a limb induced by interrupting the sensory nerve conductivity of that region of the body."_

"_The hell does that mean?" Raph stared dumbly._

"_You won't be feeling your arm for a while," Don poked the needle through the rubber cap and withdrew a tiny amount of the liquid in it. "A suitable dose for your arm should be 40ml of 0.5 prilocaine but since you're so muscular, I should probably increase the dose to 50ml. By the way, Raph. Si vos es distraho is ero cito."_

"You…_What does that mea..." Raph stopped short as he dumbly watched Donatello pull the syringe out of his arm. He didn't ever remember it being injected._

"_I said if you are distracted this will be quicker." Donatello grinned._

Some part of Mikey was slightly warmed by the memory but the mantra was still overpowering his thoughts.

'_Get rid of the pain.'_

It was odd that he was able to remember something like that down to the medical terms Donny had used to a T (though he still really had no freaking clue what any of it really meant). Leo had once said that every memory from birth was not actually forgotten but sometimes buried so deep in the recesses of one's mind, it is almost impossible to bring those thoughts up ever again. But he remembered and he knew why his body brought back this particular memory.

Though he didn't get the medical jargon that passed Don's lips he got the gist.

Prilocaine could stop the arm pain.

Ripping his belt from his waist he looped it around his shoulder so it was between his shoulder and collarbone. He then tightened it with his hand and teeth creating a tourniquet

With his good hand he rammed the glass off the case and yanked out the vile and a syringe that was hanging on the wall. As carefully as his rattling hands would let him he withdrew roughly 45ml of the anesthesia into the syringe before he blindly rammed it into his screaming, pained arm.

For a moment a tingling heat ran through his arm from his fingertips to his shoulder before stopping at his crude tourniquet. His spazzing nerves began to quiet, and slowly the agonizing feelings in the mangled bag of skin, blood and shattered bone fragments that was his left arm slowly began to numb. Soon it felt like his entire arm was simply not there anymore.

No longer riddled with frantic waves of hurt the autopilot his brain was running on shut off and Mikey took control of his mind once more.

He could think clearly now.

"I can't believe I just did that. That was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done. And I've done a lot of dumb things." He stared at the syringe. It seemed like a good thing to do at the time but he had no idea the medical precautions need for regional anesthesia. "More the reason to get out of here before that thing comes back. I think I really need talk to Donny."

The feelings of pain were quickly replaced by waves of fear as a crashing noise resounded behind him.

The giant was too big to fit through the door, but that didn't stop it from walking through it anyways.

"Eep!" Mikey ducked as the mace like weapon crashed straight past where his head had been moments before, Lucky for him, since he was no longer riddled with pain he had sense to duck. The whole upper half of the medical glass shelf was cleaved off sending a shower of glass and brightly colored liquids into the air and onto the floor.

Mikey caught himself with his good arm and executed an aikido roll away from the damage. He was really happy he had a shell. Rolling over glass would probably hurt.

"_**Kame no shi**_**."** The large metallic voice boomed in monotone.

"I heard ya the first time!" Mikey screamed in anger as he flipped up from the roll and jumped backwards to the other side of the room to give him and the monster space.

He needed a plan. Attacking blindly was dumb the first time (he grimaced at his arm. He couldn't feel it now but it was probably gonna hurt like hell later when feeling came back.) Taking a deep breath to calm his erratic heart, he began to wish he had a quick mind like Don, could formulate a plan in no time like Leo, or even had the same sheer unpredictable determination of Raph.

But he wasn't Don, Leo or Raph. He was Mikey. He needed to use own assets.

And in using his assets he did a very un-Mikey like thing. He got serious and began to think.

Long ago Master Splinter had told them that the tetsubo was a difficult weapon to control even for the strongest of men (or oni). If a strike was executed badly it would take time to regain balanced and a lot of strength to get the weapon in the right position for another strike. Even if the strike was done well it would take some time.

Mikey then used the one skill he was gifted with; attentiveness to detail. He observed (as he relocated himself from where the tetsubo now occupied) that as strong as the beast/man/oni was, it too slightly succumbed to the tetsubo's weight. He could see it in the way the Beast-man had to shift its weight from its front foot to its back foot as it readied to swing again. That gave him roughly half a second in between strikes.

Then there was the armor to take into account. It looked impenetrable and rather pointy, but even the best armor had to have its Achilles heel. It was a matter of finding it.

As Mikey dodged a vertical strike he found that Achilles heel.

Taking another deep breath he prepared to become offensive. He dropped the bundle he was carrying on the floor with a clatter. Carefully, he picked up one of the weapons from it with his right hand. He moved all his weight into his bent back leg and comfortably placed himself into a Nekoashi-dachi, the cat stance.

The massive being turned to Mikey. It raised the mace like weapon high into the air and brought it down with a force greater than gravity's natural pull.

Mikey moved at the last possible moment. He could feel the rush of wind caused by the blow behind him as he lurched forward landing right at its side in a 45 degree angle, facing the monster's midsection.

Master Splinter had always stressed that the best position to be in was so your feet were facing the direction of the enemy's center of gravity while the enemy's center was not toward you. It gave you every option of attack and your enemy none.

Had Mike been a fraction slower, he would have been split in two, but luckily he was the fastest of the four turtles. Nonetheless, His current position was only half of his plan. He gripped the handle of a weapon that was so familiar to him yet so alien at the same time.

It was one of Leo's two blue hilted katana. He jumped in the air just as the giant was adjusting the weight of its stance, preparing to bludgeon the sea green turtle (again). Yet this time Mikey was too quick. He rammed the sword into the Oni's armpit, the only place with no armor for easy joint movement, deep enough to impale lungs, ribs and other vital organs.

There were no cries of pain. No shudders or jerky movement from the beastly man as it was stabbed. He simply stopped mid-swing like he was frozen in time. Mikey slid the sword out and dropped to the floor. He scooted himself backwards just in case his plan didn't work and he made the dark being pissed off.

It still didn't move.

Mikey looked at Leo's sword. Dark liquid was slowly dripping off of the blade but it didn't look like blood. More like ink than anything else really. And it smelled like under the battle shell.

That was awfully weird.

The silence was so thick Leo's Katana (ninjakin) could probably slice it in two. But that was soon broken by a static crackling noise. It was actually a familiar sound to Mikey. He heard it all of the time from Don's lab. It was coming from the statuesque giant that had been trying to kill him…

Oh.

It wasn't until streams of brightening lights began to peak through the cracks in its armor that he realized the man he had been fighting was not human as he thought earlier.

It was a freakin' robot.

A freaking robot that he broke.

And if this mechanical object was anything like the things he tampered with in Donnie's lab, it was probably going to…

"Does the world just hate me today?" Mikey screamed as he tossed Leo's sword not too gently with all of the other weapons and yanked the brown clothed bundle under his arm. Like a bat out of hell he took off running.

He was so glad he was the fastest of his brothers but he wondered if that was fast enough. He was down the hall away from the medical room by the time that a loud explosion resonated through the corridor. While far away from the initial explosion the shockwave swept the teen off his feet and sent him sailing forward.

The instincts that had saved him earlier decided to turn red coat on him at that moment when they decided to use Mikey's left arm to save him from the fall.

Ouch.

He landed in a crumpled heap after collapsing on his useless arm. He sat up and stayed like that for a moment trying to collect his thoughts of what had just happened.

Did he win?

He wasn't sure. So he sat tensely where he was.

Nothing seemed to be coming after him. His plan had worked!

'_Sorta,"_ he thought grimly.

Warm liquid was beginning to flow into his right eye. He lightly touched his eye ridge to find a small gash. He must've been nicked during his last attack somehow. He had a few small nicks and cuts from the glass shower he took earlier in the lab, courtesy of Mr. Destructobot. Damage wasn't too bad otherwise. He did feel a bit bruised though.

Then he remembered the fact that his arm was mangled almost beyond recognition, and decided it was time to evaluate the damage done to said limb. That's when he noticed something about it.

That whole time he never took the tourniquet off. His already mutilated arm was turning odd pale shades of blue and gray from being deprived of oxygen. So, Mikey being Mikey, panicked. He ripped his belt off of his arm letting his oxygen starved limb feel the rush of blood one more.

Little did Mikey know, that was actually a very dumb move on his part.

The belt was the only thing keeping the prilocaine in his arm. Now it was free to move in his blood stream. It started with a dull throb in his arm from returning feeling (Prilocaine is normally only good for a short time) then heat shot through his shoulder and flowed through his body. The uncomfortable heat rose until he felt like he was having heatstroke. His vision began to darken. Only one thought ran through his mind before he succumbed to the darkness, _'This is really going to hurt when I wake up.'_ In no time he was out like a light slumped up against the wall. The bundle of his brothers' weapons was still clutched tightly against his chest with his right arm, and his torn belt was on the floor next to his surviving nunchaku.

"Well I'll be damned. The plan actually worked." A figure muttered in genuine surprise as he appeared nonchalantly from one of the rooms. How Michelangelo missed the fact there was a person in the underground level was a mystery.

It was a man dressed completely in black from head to toe, not a single inch of skin was showing. He was wearing a white doctor's coat which contrasted heavily with what he was wearing below. He knelt in front of the unconscious turtle

"That was rather risky using 1642. Man, for a second there, I thought that ol' _Galileo_ was going to squish him and that would've been a problem if he had. They should have used _Copernicus_, like I suggested but hey; I'm just a lackey. No one ever listens to the lackey!" He pulled something out of his coat pocket and looked at the turtle's wounds, grimacing under his mask.

"Man did he make a mess of things. I'll probably have to clean 'it' up later." He glanced over at the smoke filled lab down the hall. Turning his attention back to the turtle he observed for a moment. "He's a lot younger than I thought he would be. Huh. You'd think they'd give more details at our briefings. Whatever though. As long as I'm paid." He spotted the cut above Mikey's brow. "Wow, that'll save me some trouble." Quickly he got to work.

What he did, no one but the walls in the hall knew.

He stood up and looked down the empty hallway. "I probably ought to leave soon. Wouldn't want to intrude on the little family reunion that's about to occur. Goodbye our little Renaissant," He waved at the unconscious turtle cheerfully. As he walked into the shadows he began to hum a little tune.

"_A light in hearts of many he touched,_

_A star in the skies of scholars he was._

_And we of the renaissance give our ode,_

_To the departed painter, Michelangelo."_

Just like that, as soon as he came, he was gone leaving no trail.

00000

Um…Ow. WAH DON'T KILL ME! (hides behind a chair.)

Yeah so um, Mikey's plan didn't work out to well but no worries. His brothers will be on the scene soon enough.

As for the brief Latin bit. I speak no Latin at all so I couldn't tell you how accurate it was (all I have is a lame dictionary). Sorry if it was off.

Please review!

Flames used for marshmallows, constructive criticism appreciated.


	4. Law 4

**Murphy's Fourth Law: If there is a possibility that several things can go wrong, then the one that will cause the greatest damage will be the one to go wrong.**

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"Well, snap," Donatello was the first to speak.

They had reached the warehouse that Mikey's distress signal had last been sent from, and the entrance was littered with unconscious and injured Foot ninja.

"I think Mikey's been through here," Don stated simply.

Raph was slightly awed at the damage his little bro had been able to serve out.

"This is bad. He could still be fighting. We need to get him out of here," Leo said, an undertone of urgency in his voice..

"Well then let's get Mike and get outa here," Raph growled irritated at the whole endeavor.

"Alright," Leo began warily, "But everyone, make sure you're extremely careful. We aren't well armed. Let's try to avoid as much conflict as we can."

"Whatever, Fearless." Raph shoved past his brother.

Leo glowered at him but kept mum. Starting an argument at a time like this just wasn't worth it.

They entered through the broken front doors of the warehouse. There was not a person or ninja in sight. Every footstep they took echoed off the bare walls.

They searched several minutes in every nook and cranny in the abandoned building but not a soul was found.

"Mikey!" Leo called. His voice echoed and bounced through the empty room. No one answered and no one came. "You know besides the Foot out front I don't think anyone's here." _'Then where's Mike?_' He asked himself.

"Is it possible the numbskull wandered off to somewhere else?" He folded his arms in exasperation.

Don froze and then ran to spot in the hallway they were in. "I don't think so." He ran his hands over pieces of green plastic and shards of computer chips that were lying on the ground. "This is from Mikey's phone." He picked up the fragments and held them out for his brothers to see. "This explains why the signal cut out. He must have been trying to call us for help."

Technically Mikey was trying to do the opposite, but they didn't know that.

Raph let his arms drop to his sides and suddenly the feelings of annoyance he had toward his youngest brother was replaced by a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Slowly, the anger he had directed toward his youngest brother twisted into worry.

"Let's keep moving. We need to find him," Leo ordered coolly, masking the growing worry he was feeling as well.

They wandered further down the corridor. Finally, they came across an elevator.

"We've checked everywhere up here," Don began. "Let's go."

They piled in and rode the elevator to the only other level available on the consol. Once they hit the ground level and the doors opened the three were blinded by the florescent white light. The hallway was disgustingly clean and the air was fogged up by a thin haze of smoke.

"It smells like the garage down here." Raph wrinkled his beak.

"What's that over there?" Donny squinted. Suddenly his eyes widened in absolute horror.

Leo followed his brother's gaze. "Don? Wha-" his words jammed themselves in his throat.

Down the hall Mikey was slumped against the wall unmoving. It looked was grasping a long cloth covered parcel tightly with his right arm but the smoke that was curling around the hall made it difficult to see clearly.

"Mikey!" Raph's voice sounded off behind them. It sounded slightly relieved but worried when he noticed the littlest of the four was not moving.

The three ran up to him to see he was breathing which was a good sign but flags started going up in Don's mind.

He found out why as soon as they truly got a good look at their brother.

"Oh my go…" Don's hand slapped over his mouth at the sickening sight of their baby brother's arm. It looked like it was bleeding from every pore. The wrist was bent at an odd angle and there was a concave spot where the elbow should have been. He instantly went to Mikey's side.

Raph at first was completely stunned, not entirely comprehending what he was seeing. By the time his thoughts finally caught up to eyes he was seething angrily. "Who did this?" He said it quietly, each word grinding past his lips furiously. "Who the hell did this? I'm gonna rip them to pieces!"

"Raph calm down. We need to get Mikey out of here." Leo wanted to put his hand on Raph's shoulder but he couldn't. His hands were beginning to shake horribly. He wanted to comfort his brother, not freak him out with his own fears.

Don checked Mikey's pulse. There was a steady beat. It was slightly slow but not life threateningly. What he was extremely worried about was the arm.

"He's breathing and his pulse is…decent. But his arm… If we don't do something soon we'll have a real problem on our hands." The injury was horrific. Donny couldn't even look at it without feeling queasy. As he tried to move Mikey slightly the bundle across Mikey's chest clattered to the floor and its contents went spilling.

Leo stared wide eyed when he saw their weapons gleaming in the florescent light_. 'Mikey went and got our weapons.'_

Raph was equally shocked. He covered his eyes with his hand and breathed in heavily, trying to get control over his emotions. "You dumbass," He whispered softly. His eyes snapped to Don as he heard his name.

"What?"

"Raph," Don repeated,"can you carry him?" he asked, his voice quivering slightly.

"Y-yeah." Raphael knelt next to Mikey and slowly lifted his little brother into his arms in a bridal carry. Donatello, carefully folded Mikey's left arm across his chest, wary of jostling it in any manner.

"Be careful. I don't know the extent of the damage yet. We don't want to mess anything up more than it is." Just he was about to let go of Mikey's arm he realized that one of his little brothers nunchucks were missing. "What the. Where'd it-?"

"I'll look for it," Leo said noticing Don's confusion. "It's probably nearby. Give me a second." He took off toward the end of the hall.

"Leo needs to hurry. Mikey's arm can't stay like this." Don rubbed his eyes as something irritated them. "Where is all of this smoke coming from?" Both he and Raph looked to see down the hall a large gaping hole with smoldering black clouds floating out of it. They both nodded to each other and went to investigate.

"Holy hell." Raph gaped the second they had entered the lab. Machines were broken. Shattered glass and rubble covered the ground. Puddles of colored liquids melded with eachother letting off various colored steams. Smoke lazily crept across the ground and floated near the ceiling. Sparks showered intermittently from severed wires and damaged electronics. This was not what really caught their eyes, however.

There was a grotesque blackened figure on the ground. It was in shambles, destroyed from the inside out. Its armor was broken, its mask was cracked and smoke was coming from the various splits in the machine. A thick black substance was beginning to pool underneath its limp body, oil Don guessed. However it was monstrous, like a demon from a nightmare almost.

"What is that thing?" Raph blanched. He looked down at his little brother, at the monster, then back at Mikey. Two and two were put together. "Did…Did Mikey fight this thing?!" Raph asked in disbelief as he stared down at his littlest brother in total shock.

"It looks like a robot." Don circled the machine. "This is incredible! The technology put into this thing is really advanced. Its armor; Is this a titanium alloy? The machinery in this thing is amazing." He ended his journey when he reached a tall object protruding from the ground. Don gaped. "I think I know what happened to Mikey's arm."

Lying next to the freakish metal figure, impaling the ground, was a lethal tetsubo. A few of its metal spikes were gleaming with crimson flecks.

Raph's expression darkened further.

"Oh yeah. Someone is gonna die."

Don whipped out a small notebook and began writing down things.

Raph eyed him. "What're ya doin'?"

"Taking notes," he said as he jotted down the number on the broken monster's chest. "Might need it later. We're going to have to come back here and get some clues eventually anyway."

"Guys, I found-what the heck is that?!" Leo recoiled the second he entered the room in shock.

"It's the thing that broke Mike's arm." Donatello said airily in an attempt to remove himself from the horror of what he had said. "Speaking of which, Leo, we need to leave as soon as possible. Did you find his other nunchaku?"

Leo rubbed his arm hesitantly. "Yeah…Sort of." He revealed what was left of the weapon. The chain was split, one of the wooden rods had been reduced to splinters and the other one had a vicious crack running all the way up the center to from the bottom to the metal stud that attached the chain.

Raph let out a short laugh. "So that's how it goes, huh? We get our weapons back and Mikey has to lose his?" He was furious. Whoever did this to his little brother was going to die a slow painful death.

"Let's go. The longer we wait to get home the worse off Mikey will be in the long run. Let's get out of here."

"Don't worry, Mikey. I'm gonna get who did this," Raph whispered before following his two brothers.

00000

For the second time in 48 hours Master Splinter was waiting uneasily for his sons to return. They had told him that Michelangelo had wandered off so he let them go retrieve him.

Splinter was worried over his youngest son's reckless decision. A dark feeling was looming over the whole situation. And only to add on top of that was turmoil that was hanging over his sons over the loss of their weapons. He was afraid it was clouding their judgment.

Their weapons had meant everything to his sons. Each was an extension of themselves, handcrafted and custom made by Splinter himself.

It brought back memories actually. Choosing the weapons most suitable for each of his sons was a difficult endeavor.

Leonardo had always been his most focused child. He was always the quickest to master techniques and kata, and quickly rose to being the protector of his brothers. That was why Splinter had chosen the katanas (well they were actually ninjakin but that story was for another time) as his weapon. The sword was a symbol of leadership and power. Such a dangerous weapon could only be mastered by someone with true focus and skill.

Raphael was easily, by sheer brute strength, the strongest of the four. However, he had such anger inside that made Splinter wary on what weapon to give him. He feared if given something offensive his second oldest would jump wildly and blindly into battle which could end fatally. This was why he was given the Sai, a clearly Defensive weapon. Splinter hoped that having to learn defensive techniques and understand their importance more, Raph would calm down in the heat of battle.

Donatello was the most passive of his sons. This son seemed to be the most against violence and often tried to get out of aggressive situations using his vast intelligence over power. For that reason he was given the Bo staff, a weapon that would be very difficult to kill with, yet would not leave him defenseless. The staff, also as a long range weapon, would allow him to keep his distance from his enemies and would assist him in avoiding confrontation.

Then there was his son Michelangelo. Finding a weapon for this son had been the most difficult task of them all. The youngest did not have the same focus or strength as his elder brothers did. Instead, he had been gifted with agility and boundless energy. He easily had the greatest endurance out of all of his brothers. For this reason, he was given the nunchaku. The nunchaku seemed to be an odd choice, considering they were the most difficult weapon to control. Yet Splinter believed that Michelangelo would be able to channel his wild energy and free spirit through the chaotic moves that the chain weapon required.

Splinter sighed. He hoped his sons would return soon.

"Master Splinter! Master Splinter we have a problem!" Splinter's ears perked at the urgency in Leonardo's voice and he looked up to see three of his sons standing before him; all of which had their weapons in their rightful places. His wish had been granted yet not as he had hoped. Michelangelo was being carried by Raphael, and he was not moving.

"Michelangelo!" he jumped and instantly rushed to his fallen son's side. "What has happened? His arm…What has happened to his arm?"

"Well…we won't know for sure until he wakes up and tells us, but from what we saw…"

"… He got his ass whipped by a robot from hell," Raph finished for Donny.

"Master… Uh…here," Leonardo approached his sensei halfheartedly and softly dropped the remnants of Mikey's nunchaku into Splinter's hands. Splinter's expression was unreadable as he stared at the wood shards and broken chain links.

Leo watched him for a brief moment before averting his gaze elsewhere.

"We will address this matter latter, but for now," the old rat placed a clawed paw in his youngest child's face and looked at him with sadness and worry, "we must address Michelangelo's wounds."

"Uh, right," Donatello began panicked, "Let's take him to the lab. Um, Raph, follow me."

When they reached it Donatello began giving out the commands. "Lay him over there, Raph." he motioned to the long rectangular table in the middle of the lab.

Raph delicately set his baby sibling onto the table as if he were made of fragile porcelain. His gentleness even surprised Splinter.

Don instantly got to work.

Don had been able to clean Mikey's arm off a bit. Yet, it still looked horrible, and beads of blood continue to swell from the several puncture marks. _'Time to see the damage done," _he grimaced. Carefully, starting at the wrist, he began to slowly prod and feel the arm to assess the damage. His expression darkened the farther up the limb he got. "The arm has suffered direct trauma. The carpals and the metacarpals have been shattered. There's a displaced fracture in the radius and two cracks in the ulna. The elbow is completely crushed. The humorous has 1…2…3 fissures. The shoulder suffered from a contusion but at least that doesn't look too bad. Shouldn't be any worry of compartment syndrome from that…possible internal bleeding but it's too difficult for me to really tell."

Every word out of Donny's mouth hit Leo, Raph and splinter like a poison arrow.

"You can fix him…right Donny?" Leo asked sounding like a lost child. He felt so useless. For the most part, he could prevent his brothers from getting hurt, but when he couldn't and they did get hurt he had no idea on how to treat their injuries. When it came to medicine he was as skilled as second grader.

Donatello froze. Suddenly the pressure placed on his shoulders hit him full force. He was starting to feel like Atlas.

"I…don't think I can," Don himself sounded stunned, almost shocked by the realization he came to.

"What?" Raph's voice came out clear and sharp as ice.

"It's,"he paused, searching for the words. "This is above my head, Raph."

"Like hell it is! You're the super genius of the family so put that damn mind of yours to use and make 'im betta! You've set bones before!"

"Yeah, ones split clean through that could easily be set. Nothing ever to this extent."

"Well then you're gonna have to learn fast! You have to do it!"

"I…I CAN'T!" Donny slammed both of his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands.

"What d' ya mean you can't? You always fix us up afta fights, now fix Mikey!" Raph slammed his fist into the table leaving a small dent. The purple clad turtle, unfazed by his brother's violence, merely peered up between his fingers with his eyes narrowed. He swiftly stood to his complete height and began to rant.

"Raph! I can bandage sprains, ice bruises, disinfect small wounds and even give a stitch or two if a cut is too deep, but_ this_!" He trailed off waving at Mikey's arm. "I can't do this! I've stressed it to you all time and time again that I'm limited when it comes to medicine! I'm a mechanic not a doctor. I…" He calmed slightly letting his arm drop, his gaze slowly turned to the floor. "With machines if something is wrong with them you can easily take them completely apart and then put them back together." He paused breathing heavily. "But with living things there are too many variables. You can't just shut a person off to fix them because they won't turn back on. You can't replace bad parts like a machine because the body will reject it or it simply won't work. Machines for the most part are all the same but with people there are too many differences."

"Don," Raph softened his gaze slightly letting the muscles in his fist relax.

"I'd have to completely reconstruct his arm. There are too many risks I'm just not prepared for. If a miss a bone fragment, it could become a spur and pierce a vein. If I set a bone slightly off, his arm could become disfigured. If I dig around blindly, I could tear muscles beyond repair or even hit an artery I couldn't see," he quieted further. "I just can't do this."

Raph was silent but only for a moment. He tok a deep breath and then with a surprising calm in his voice started, "Don. I don't know half the stuff you do so when ya say things like this, cuz you're the most knowledgeable about this stuff, I would normally listen to ya. But not now. You're worried about disfigurin' his arm, that he'll never be able to use it again? Or you're worried of makin' a fatal mistake, but jus' look." He gestured to their baby brothers mutilated arm."If we don't do somethin' now it's gonna to try to heal itself like that and he will definitely never use it again. Then how could we look him in the face knowin' we coulda possibly done somethin'?"

Donny looked away.

"You know he's right," Leo stepped in. "We need to do something. I understand that this is putting a lot of pressure on you, Don, but you're the most qualified for this."

"Hell, the best Leo or I could do is put on a band-aid. If we tried surgery we'd royally screw something up." Raph shrugged.

Don closed his eyes for a moment in thought weighing his options.

"We have complete faith in you my son." Splinter lightly touched Donatello on the arm. "We believe you are fully capable in this endeavor. Remember that what lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." He smiled sadly.

Donatello sighed in defeat.

"Leo, there are two books in my room sitting on the top of my bookcase. One's titled 'Anatomical Kinesiology' and the other is called 'Skeleton Keys'. Get them for me. Raph, top drawer in the left desk, get me my scalpel and bring me the small blue toolbox. "

0000

The second they had retrieved the requested items, Donatello had kicked them all out of the lab. He said he couldn't attempt surgery with everyone staring over his shoulder (the poor guy was scared half to death.) The three of them had sat in silence for hours. Master Splinter eventually silently got up and took both of Mikey's nunchucks to his room. Soon after, Leo of all people became antsy and vanished off as well. Suddenly by himself, Raph had time to let the situation completely catch up to him and hit him full force. It also gave him time to brood.

Mikey, the bouncing baby brother had nearly been killed.

There would be vengeance. Leo disappearing actually made things easier for him. Without Fearless leader harping down his back he could do what needed to be done.

Raphael was going on a man hunt.

With his recently reacquired Sais, he headed to the front entrance of the Lair with deadly intent in mind. Those bastards were going to die a slow and painful death.

"Where do you think you are going Raphael," A sharp voice halted his journey. He turned to see master Splinter calmly walking toward him, his walking stick clinking on the ground with each step. Raph had not even realized the old rat had left his room.

"Out, Master," He said shortly.

"And what do you hope to accomplish?"

"I'm gonna find the people that did that took our weapons and did this to Mikey and I'm going to make them wish they never crossed our paths."

"I have just had one son badly injured because he went out on nightly trip alone and you believe I will simply watch and let the same thing happen to another? You are not leaving."

"Master, let me go."

"And what do you plan to do, hmmm?" Splinter narrowed his eyes, "Wander aimlessly searching for these unknown enemies? And what if you do find them? Do you truly believe you can take on such an adversary alone? You will stay here."

"I can sure as hell try!" Raph barked, "I'm gonna make those bastards pay for what they did! They deserve it! You hafta let me go, Master!"

"And who is this for?" That question caught Raph somewhat off guard. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was quickly cut off.

"Will it truly be for your brother or will it be a selfish act for your own sake?"

"I…"

"You _what_, Raphael?"

There was a hesitant pause before Raph groaned and leaned his head against the door not facing his father. "I yelled at him," he confessed. "Right after we lost our weapons and 'e was taken hostage, I basically tore his head off. I was just so mad and needed something to blame and there was Mikey. I wouldn't even look at him. I must've made 'im feel horrible. No wonder he tried to get our stuff back. We all basically guilted him inta doin' it."

"I see." Splinter stood next to his son placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "None of you are to blame for this incident. To go after your weapons was your brother's choice and his choice alone. What reasons he had for this…foolish act we cannot guess. We cannot make assumptions on the events that have occurred without knowing the whole tale. When your brother wakes up we can ask him ourselves what happened. And you should be here to greet him as well. Senseless violence will solve nothing."

"It would make me feel betta," Raph muttered under his breath but Splinter's sharp hearing caught it.

"I understand your frustration my son, but you are needed here. Your brother needs you." Splinter stood up straight, "I do not wish for you all to feel guilty on this matter. Also, while we are speaking of guilt, I wish for you to speak with Leonardo. I fear that he is taking on a heavy burden that is not for him to carry. Unfortunately, it is in his nature to believe he is responsible for everything that goes wrong in this family."

00000

Leo sat on the polished wooden floor of his room in a half lotus, his hands resting on his knees. Leo's room, out of all of his brothers, was the least decorative. He was perfectly fine with this. He had an appreciation of simplicity over the random clutter his younger siblings all seemed to pack their rooms with. (Don's room was filled to the brim with books and notes, Raph broke a lot of the stuff in his room and never bothered moving the pieces from his floor, and no one had even seen Mikey's floor in ages.)

Leo's decorum consisted of a futon in the corner, a nightstand with an alarm clock (he didn't really need it since his internal clock got him up at the same time every morning), A book shelf filled with tomes and scrolls, a desk, and on his wall he had a few swords mounted and a scroll or two from master splinter. But today something else was in his room as well.

He slowly opened his eyes to see Mikey's sketch book lying before him. He had been carrying it around since they had left the Lair earlier. Mikey wanted to show them his picture so badly but they blew him off. _Leo_ blew him off. If they had just looked at it earlier it wouldn't have consumed Mikey's thoughts, he wouldn't have been distracted, they wouldn't have lost their weapons in the first place and Mikey wouldn't have gone after them.

Mikey wouldn't have gotten hurt. Mikey rarely ever showed them his art unless he was really proud of it. He tended to be a bit self conscious about his drawings. Yet when he did show them to his brothers they were always spectacular. Mikey was easily the most artistic of the family. Sure, Donatello could draw somewhat, but that was more out of necessity for making diagrams and blueprints. While Don was smart he didn't have the same creative genius as Mikey held.

In fact, this was why Mikey was so attentive to detail. It was for his art. He observed things to know exactly how to recreate what he saw. He observed movement down to a key just so he'd be able to capture that perfect dynamic moment of motion on paper. He observed to bring his creations to as close to lifelike as possible.

"Oi. Knock, knock." Leo looked ahead to see Raph open his door, "Leo, you okay?" Raph grimaced upon seeing his blue clad sibling. Splinter had been right. His older brother's expression was cracking no matter how desperately he tried to keep his cool demeanor up.

"Mikey's picture," Leo spoke no more words than necessary, holding up the sketchbook from his position on the floor.

Raph quickly crossed the room and grabbed it. He flipped through it in surprise. The pictures were so lifelike. Most of the drawings were of himself, his brothers and master Splinter. There were a few of Casey and April in there as well as some cityscapes (one really neat one of ground level caught his eye). There were a few abstract pictures and a doodle page or two thrown into the mix as well showing Mikey's range of skill. Then he got to the last page that had the most recent date marked at the bottom.

The picture was of them as children when they were 8. The scene was at their old Lair before it was destroyed. Leo was standing in an awkward stance holding two boken; one in each hand trying to balance an apple on the end of each of the wooden blades while one apple teetered haphazardly on his head. He wasn't focusing on this task though. Instead, his attention seemed to be turned to the little pencil sketched Raphael that was climbing up to the weapons wrack attempting to reach something sharper than the wooden swords. The little Raph, also, seemed to be glaring at the little Leo. A child Donatello was sitting on the floor next to Leo with his attention turned to unscrewing a bolt from a small mechanical box (an old radio it appeared). He was blissfully unaware that one of the apples that had apparently been balancing on one of the boken Leo was holding, had rolled off and was now suspended above his head. Master splinter was in the background with a look of panic on his face. The image of him was frozen in a long stride forward with both of his hands in front of him, rushing to his sons.

It was a picture of absolute chaos but it said so much. None of them had any pictures or photos of their child hood, only their memories. Yet the image was as good as any photograph and the detail was incredible. Raph could almost see all of the events unfolding. It was amazing that Mikey could even remember exactly how the old Lair looked at that time.

"He's good. Real good," Raph chuckled slightly at the picture. "Why didn't Mike draw 'imself in?"

"I think it's supposed to be from his point of view. This is how he saw us," Leo murmured. "It's fitting," Raph smirked looking at the younger penciled version of him. Mikey had been able to capture that defiant glint that was always in his eye perfectly.

"I can't believe this is happening," Leo suddenly wasn't talking about the picture anymore, "He'll never be able to use his arm the same way. It's…Raph he's left handed. Do you know what he has to give up with his arm if it can't be fixed? He won't be able draw anymore, Raph! Not at the same level."

Raph's smile vanished.

"Don't say that, Leo. Donny's gonna fix him up. He'll be back to scribbling in dis thing in no time."

"I should've been more careful. I should've known he'd do something like this… If…If he can never draw again I won't be able to forgive myself," Leo buried his face in his hands, _'even if it does heal, I don't know if I'll be able to forgive myself.'_

'_This was what Splinter was talking about,' _"It's gonna be fine! Don knows what he's doing," _'Kind of'_, "Mikey'll be good as new. Stop being such a pessimist."

"And your one to talk," Leo spat, as he stood, "This coming from mister half empty right?"

"I'm trying to hold things together here, but you are seriously pushing it!" Raph's anger began to reach its boiling point.

"It's always you and your anger Raph isn't it?!"

"Well bein' angry is helluva lot betta then wallowing in self pity over somethin' I had no control over!" Raph didn't know why he was arguing with Leo over something he somewhat agreed with. He also felt responsible for Mikey like he should have been there to protect him. There was just something in Leo that made him want to take opposite ends on everything they stood for.

"WE HAD TOTAL CONTROL!" Leo threw his hands into the air, "We shouldn't have let him be taken hostage in the first place! And we should have known he just waltz out of the Lair! We're ninja and we didn't even notice him leave!"

"News flash, Leo. Mikey's a ninja too, and a damn good one when he wants to be. Him an' his agility; you know when he don't wanna be found he won't."

"But he wasn't good enough to stop that thing from hurting him. I should've been there to protect him."

"You can't always come on your white horse brandishing those steak knives of yours to come and save us, Oh fearless leader!"

Leo gave a short grim laugh, "Are you joking? Raph, out of all of us I fear the most! Every time you take one of your midnight journeys alone to the surface, I'm afraid something will happen to you and there would be nothing I could do about it because I have no idea where the hell you are! Every time Donny works on one of his experiments, I freak out because I'm worried something will go wrong and then I won't be able to do a single damn thing because I wouldn't know how. And then there's Mikey. He's like a magnet for trouble! I can barely turn my back without him getting in a jam somehow! And just like I feared the second my guards down he…He could have been killed Raph! He could've been killed and it would've of been my fault!"

"Leo, for once, stop carrying the whole damn world on your shoulders! Bad things happen and they aren't always you fault!"

"I'm the leader, Raph! I am responsible for you all! Do you have any idea on how frustrating it is when you are responsible for loved ones safety and they get hurt! If you even cared what happened to us or to Mikey you would know how I felt!"

Slap.

Leo stood in shock, his cheek reddening where Raph backhanded him across the face.

"Don't you ever," Raph's voice dripped with venom as he retracted his hand enough to point at his older brother menacingly, "accuse me of not carrin' for you guys. I worry jus' as much as you do."

Leo looked at him with shock slowly touching the stinging skin lightly with his fingers. They both locked eyes: Raph's fiery rage colliding with Leo's icy bitterness.

Unexpectedly, Raph dropped his hot gaze, "Les get some ice for that," He muttered walking toward the kitchen. Leo dropped his head in shock at his own words and followed Raph.

How could he have been so insensitive to Raph? He knew how much Raph really cared for them all, especially Mikey. It was just hard for his younger brother to show how he felt for other people. He didn't really know how to show his emotions well which was why he always came off as angry and as a loner.

"Here." Raph grabbed something out of the freezer and tossed it to Leo.

"Frozen corn. Nice," Leo mumbled pressing the bag to his swelling cheek. Silence quickly saturated the room around them, "Look, Raph, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I didn't mean what I said; I know you care."

"You know what, Leo. I really hate you," Raph started. "Sometimes you piss me off so damn much, I just wanna bash that big head of yours into a wall."

"Gee thanks." Leo muttered sarcastically. Perhaps Raph didn't care for_ all_ of them as he had thought.

"Shut up and let me finish. Even though you rub me the wrong way in jus' about everything, if someone dared to hurt you, I would probably go on a rampage till I found the dude and put him six feet under. You wanna know why? Because even though you're a high and mighty ass that needs to step down from his high horse, you're still my bro. And even if I don't necessarily like ya, I still love ya."

Not knowing how to reply Leo remained silent. Raph took a seat at the kitchen table.

"But I know you can take of yourself so you're pretty low on the priority list." Raph grumbled, "But Mikey…He's at the top of that list."

"He's at the top of all of our lists. I just never really noticed until now," It was true. While they all cared for each other deeply, Michelangelo had that special place in all of their hearts. He was the one they always kept an extra eye out for. He was the one they made the extra effort to protect. He was the one they all tried to shield from the horrors of the world. He was the optimist that also held their family together. He was their light.

"I can't help but feel like there's something I could've done. I can't help but feel guilty," Leo sighed, "I really hate feeling like this."

"I could hit you again. That might bring ya outa your funk," Raph readied his arm again and Leo instinctively raised his hands defensively.

"No, really, that's ok." He let out another sigh, "I just need something to distract myself. I'm going to watch the news."

"I think I'll watch wit ya. If I think anymore about what happened I'm gonna toss everythin' masta told me out the window and burn the whole city down to get those whack-bags." They settled on the couch and flipped on the TV. On the screen was the blackened frame of a building. "Hey… Speakin' of burnin' down cities, isn't that that building that was on fire last night?" Raph pointed at the screen.

"Yeah I think it is. What are the odds?" Leo supposed, turning the volume up so they could hear the newscaster lady.

"…It was originally thought to have been an accidental fire caused from the building's furnace malfunctioning, however evidence leads it to have been intentional." Leo's eyes snapped up. That caught his attention. "Left in the ashes of the building was this word." Replacing the reporter, a photograph of a partially burned wall appeared. One word was scratched across the surface in jagged letters, '_renaissance_', "Whether this had been done by a radical cult, a gang, or even a solo vandal is unclear, but police are now searching for the answers. If anyone has any leads, please call crime stoppers. As for the buildings residents, luckily, most of the occupants were able to evacuate the building safely. Unfortunately there were two casualties from the fire: Angelica Rasmussen and Michelle Creech. A service will be held for these two this Sunday. Now onto other news…" Leo shut the TV off in shock. He and Raph turned their heads toward each other and stared in disbelief.

That fire was possibly not an accident? What was it then? Something did not feel right at all. Leo also felt kind of bad for the parents of that Michelle and Angeli… "Michelangelo." His words startled himself.

A coincidence. It had to be coincidence. It couldn't be connected.

Could it?

Raph was obviously thinking the same thing, "Did they-? Was that planned!? Did they deliberately light that building on fire so we'd…Screw whateva Splinta' said. I'm gonna go gut those guys right now!"

"Raph wait!" Leo chased Raph as he marched angrily toward the door wielding his Sais. Just before they reached the door Master Splinter emerged.

"My sons," he smiled. "The surgery was a success."

0000

It had taken hours but Donatello had done it. He completely reconstructed Michelangelo's arm to the best of his ability. He had to wire together shattered bone fragments after putting the tiny pieces back together like a puzzle. He had to reset all of the cleaner snapped bones back aligned perfectly. He had to sew muscle and skin tears back together, making sure everything was matching up with the right things.

And he had been teaching himself how to do all of this as he was doing it.

The entire time he had been depending on his books on what went where and how to put things in the right places.

"Donny!" Both Leo and Raph burst through the door. "Is he ok? How'd it go?"

"It _looks _like it worked fine but I won't know for certain until it's had time to heal some. He won't be able to use his arms for roughly 3 months," Donatello wiped some sweat off his brow, "His blood pressure was kind of high which was weird but it leveled out some." He looked to his youngest brother.

Michelangelo was still sleeping peacefully. His arm was wrapped in a layer of bandages going from down his wrist up to his shoulder. On top of that was the cast layer that was beginning to dry. Some of the smaller cuts had Band-Aids and gauze on them, and the cut above his eye ridge, which had been deeper than the others, had three stitches closing it. "Go get me coffee now, please," Don demanded.

Leo instantly ran to the kitchen and started the coffee maker. No one said anything for several minutes, but that changed as Don spoke again. "I had to research how to do the whole procedure _while_ I was doing the procedure," he groaned.

"Well you obviously knew what you were doing in the end." Leo returned brandishing the whole pot of coffee and three mugs (only three. Splinter hated the stuff).

"Leo," Don started calmly, "If I knew what it was I was doing, it wouldn't be called _research_, now would it?" Donatello poured himself some coffee and walked back. His hands were shaking so badly most of the brown liquid found itself on the floor during his trek to the chair. "That completely shot my nerves," Don whimpered taking a deep swig of his coffee. "I've lost at least twelve years of my life minimum. If any of you _ever_ get that injured again I swear I'll just euthanize myself. That scared me half to death, and I don't want to find out what happens when you're scared half to death twice."

"Don't worry Donny, you did great. See? We knew ya could do it," Raph grinned giving his rattled younger sibling a great pat on the back before taking a swig of his own cup coffee. It was quickly spit back out. "This is _not_ coffee. It's rocket fuel!" He choked, glaring at Leo.

Leo shrugged. "The kitchen and I don't get along that well."

Splinter chuckled. Already things were returning to a somewhat normal state.

000000

Mikey was having a really weird dream. Master Splinter's fur was bright pink, Leonardo was walking around in Samurai armor, Donatello was having a very in-depth conversation with a book wearing glasses (the book was talking back to him), Raph was riding a white horse backwards apparently sleeping… And everything was tinted an odd shade of purple.

The book decided to float over to him and began ranting on some epic quest he needed to go on with some weird maps. Then something weird happened. An eye appeared on the palm of his left hand. Soon after, one appeared on his right hand. He would've been more freaked out, but this was a dream and everything seems normal in a dream. Also, they were beautiful, looking almost like jewels. Anyway, the eye on his left hand was a stunning sapphire blue, shimmering like the depths of the sea. It was the map of the ocean. The one on his right hand was a brilliant molten gold color. This one was the map of the land. All he needed to do was hold his hand out in front of his face and he'd be able to see anywhere.

The book was going to explain his quest but Donny took a flame thrower to the book thoroughly torching it. He waved his hands stating Mikey shouldn't worry about anything or any 'quests'.

Soon after, Leo came up brandishing his swords and he jumped in front of his little brother. Raph also came galloping up, (he was awake now) with a javelin, on his horse. Don got ready to aim his flame thrower a well. Something was coming from the front. It looked like a tidal wave of ink coming toward them. All of his older brothers were trying to protect him (and the weird eye map things). However they seemed to fail to realize that from behind another shadow was coming.

"Um guys? Guys! Something's behind me!" They took no notice of Mikey and focused on what was in front of them directly as the shadow behind them grabbed Mikey with black tendrils. He fought and kicked but it dragged him away screaming.

His brothers were so focused with what was in front of them; they never realized the thing they were trying to protect was taken away from behind. Soon after, Mikey fell into darkness.

00000

That darkness was quickly replaced with a blinding light as he cracked his eyes open slightly. He had no idea where he was. His thoughts were clouded and fuzzy, his mind swirling. He took notice his eye ridge was itching but he couldn't move his arms to scratch it. Both felt heavy as lead. And his left arm felt like dull needles were swimming through it.

Through his haze he heard a voice. "Mikey?"

00000

There you have it. This chapter was being evil and none of the characters were behaving as I thought they should but I tried...meh.


	5. Law 5

Holy snap OO. Chapter four got a much bigger response then I thought it would (sniff). Man I love you guys. You're all my motivation to keep writing when otherwise I'd just be a lazy bum.

Anywho… I think I'm going to try to aim for an update every week or two now. That's the only way I'll be able to pace things so the story doesn't end up garbled, rushed crap.

Disclaimer: Don't own, never will. Plot and plot devices all belong to me though.

00000

**Murphy's Fifth Law: If anything absolutely can NOT go wrong, it will anyway.**

00000

"Why can't the people I end up working for ever just rent a condo in Florida or something," The man grumbled as he walked toward the rusted steel doors at the end of the hall. His lab coat fluttered behind him with each step he took. Reaching into his coat pocket with one black clothed hand, he retrieved a small metal card. He inserted it into a slot next to the door. There was the clicking noise of a lock unhinging and the doors swung open.

There was someone waiting on the other side.

"You are late." A deep voice spoke up in front of him. Standing there was a ninja wearing dark gray armor and a traditional Japanese straw traveler's hat.

"And you are?" the man inquired, "Oh, you must be that other guy _he_ hired. Guess that makes us partners. You can call me Dr. X. And what might your name be?" he outstretched a hand only to be received coldly and silently by the ninja, "My, not a talker are you? Well since you won't give me your name I suppose I must call you something. You sort of look like a George to me. Mind if I call ya George?" The ninja, now christened George, turned haughtily on his heal and began to walk away.

"Follow me, _teme(1)_," 'George' growled.

Dr. X simply jogged happily behind the fast paced man, "How endearing, but I would much prefer Dr. X if you don't mind."

"_He_ wishes to see you regarding the plan. Everything went well I assume?" the ninja began, ignoring X's previous statements.

"Yes, everything worked perfectly. Except for Galileo was probably a bad choice. I mean it all worked out in the end but he still almost squished the kid. Should have used Copernicus but hey, no one ever listens to the lackey," he shrugged, "Anyway, I did what I had to with our little Renascent and there will be a test run soon to make sure everything worked out ok. Oh, and I took care of the 'stage' we set sometime after they left, and left a little _surprise_ for when they check back." He chuckled.

"For your sake it had better work." The ninja snarled. They walked in silence.

"You've been staring at me. Any particular reason?" There was amusement in X's voice.

The ninja eyed him with distaste, "You are not shinobi. Why do you cover yourself with such attire?" every inch of skin on Dr. X's body was wrapped in black cloth so that no skin showed. Not even his eyes were visible.

"The same reason as you 'shinobi'. I don't want to be seen. My reasons are my own," he said nonchalantly. The ninja scowled under his face mask.

They stopped, "The master is beyond these doors. I must leave."

"Well it has been an interesting walk. I hope to see you soon George!"

"Watashi wa _Makoto Matsuo_ desu (2)." The ninja whispered before walking out.

Dr. X chuckled, "Silly George. Names are nothing more than labels for convenience." And with that he walked through the iron doors, "Time to see what my grumpy employer wants with me this time."

00000

"Mikey?" Leo questioned a second time, as he saw his little brothers eyes crack open slightly before quickly shutting again. He looked to be in a complete daze like he had no idea on where he was.

"L…Leo?" He slurred. "Arm hurts," He incoherently muttered as the dull needles swimming in his arm seemed to get sharper.

"Mikey? Hey Mikey your okay now. We got you home." He felt Leo stroke his cheek with a shaking hand. Slowly but steadily, Mikey's senses began to return to him somewhat.

"Why am I on a table?" Mikey groaned in a futile attempt to get comfortable. Leo chuckled softly.

"Sorry. Don didn't want to move you right away."

"I want my own bed. Is cold." Beyond the fuzzy haze he heard Leo stand up and walk over to him. He felt arms slide under his neck and knees and he was carefully lifted up. Leo was carrying him.

"Leo, what're you doing?" A new voice, Don's, appeared beyond the drowsy fog.

"I'm taking him to his room. Is that okay Donny?"

"I guess, but you need to be very careful. His arm is in a fragile state. You need to…Where's Mikey's door?"

"Um… right Raph kind of broke it earlier, and speaking of Raph…"

"Leo! What the hell are ya doin'?"

"I'm putting him in his own bed."

"I'll do it. You can pro'lly barely lift 'im up."

"It's fine Raph. I'm sure I can handle it," There was sarcasm. The two bickered for a moment. Mikey couldn't focus very well on what was said as his attention weaved between darkness and a dizzy haze.

"Guys, you're both going to end up dropping him! Stop it!" Don's voice silenced both of his older brothers. The banter stopped.

Mikey felt himself being slowly lowered onto something soft, 'Bed.' A warm blanket was thrown over him as well.

"Nng…You guys are loud." Mikey moaned.

"Mikey? Hey, how're ya feelin' bud?" Raph's voice was quiet yet clear next to him.

"Dunno. Could you tell the room to stop moving? I'd like to get off now." He heard a low quiet laughter from Raph.

"Don't you worry about it. Jus go back to sleep."

"Hey Raph…"

"Yeah Mikey?"

"Please don't leave. Promise me you'll stay in the Lair," Mikey said sleepily dozing off some. "Give me your word you'll stay with me."

"…I promise."

"Good." Mikey yawned and then smiled softly, _'Now Raph won't go off and do something stupid.' _The dream world over came him. This time there were no dreams of glasses wearing books, eye maps, or tidal waves of ink.

00000

The second time Mikey woke up, his head was much clearer and he determined he had been right. His arm did hurt like hell. In fact, it felt like a field plow ran over it, backed up, and ran over it again. Mikey moaned in pain.

And only to add to his discomfort he had an itch on his eye ridge. It was one of those weird ones that seemed to be underneath the skin so no matter how much you scratched it, it wouldn't go away. It was unreachable and it was driving him insane.

Also, he concluded that he was now at home. When he had first been knocked out he had been at the lab. That meant that the dumb phone signal had gotten out to his brothers and they had save him and brought him back. However, he was actually sort of glad they did.

Slowly, using his right hand, he propped himself up so he was sitting up. He was bewildered to find it was rather difficult because his blankets were holding him down. He looked in surprise to see Raph leaning his head on the edge of his bed, half sitting in a chair pulled up, trapping the blankets under his folded arms. He was asleep.

"Raph?" Mikey whispered in surprise. Then realization dawned, _'I asked him to stay didn't I? You big softie,'_ A smile crept across his face, "Raph? Wakey, wakey." He tapped lightly on Raph's shoulder causing his red bandana wearing brother to jerk out of slumber alarmed (so was the affect of having ninja reflexes)

"What the he…Mikey!" Raph stared at his younger brother, mouth agape.

"Sorry to get you up, but you were drooling on my sheets."

"You…you." Raph was at a loss for words.

"Don't worry. Donny just bought detergent the other day. It's no big deal," He flashed a grin.

Suddenly the look on Raph's face flipped from confusion to rage, and he basically shot out of his chair and slammed both of his hands roughly on the wall either side of Mikey's head. "You _IDIOT_! What the hell were you thinking!?" he roared.

Mikey's smile melted completely off his face, and was replaced with shock, _'Okay, I was seriously not expecting this reaction!', _"Raph? Wait, what's wrong…"

"What in the high heavens was _wrong_ with you?! What in that deranged, screwed up mind of yours made ya think it was okay to go wander off on your own like that?! What!?!" For a brief moment, Mikey was puzzled before he realized what his furious brother was talking about.

"Wait! Well…I was only trying too… I got the weapons back. I…" First he got his brothers mad at him for losing the weapons, and then he got them mad at him for getting them back. Was there no pleasing these people, he internally huffed. "If…Your Sais! I got your Sais back…"

"You moron! IT WASN'T THE FREAKIN WEAPONS WE WERE WORRIED ABOUT!" Raph fumed, "IT WAS _YOU_!" he almost choked as his words slipped from his mouth.

When Mikey was taken hostage, he had been terrified. That was why he was so angry at Mikey. Not because his weapons were lost, but because his little brothers life had been at risk. Raph closed his eyes and let his hands slid down so the were resting on Mikey's shoulders (albeit more softly on Mikey's left side). "You scared us to death Mikey. We were peeved we lost our stuff, but the reason we were so angry was because…we could have lost you."

"Raph…" Mikey's eyes were still wide.

"Then right after dat you go missin'. We found you out cold in an old abandoned building, unconscious foot littering the place, your arm lookin' like it got run over repeatedly by a lawnmower…and that robot thing. It could have torn you in two."

"It didn't though," Mikey piped up in his defense.

"But it could've! You could have been killed! You could have…" Raph choked looking down. "Leo was freaked out. His hands were shakin' so bad that even though he tried ta hide it, we all could tell he was scared outa his mind… for _you_. He was blamin' himself thinking it was his fault. Then Don was terrified he wouldn't be able ta fix your arm. He was seriously worried he'd mess somthin' up permanently. And masta Splinta…He looked so old," Raph paused to let this sink in, "I never wanted ya to get that hurt…I'm sorry Mikey. This was all of our faults. We shouldn't have been so mad at ya. Then you wouldn't have felt like ya had ta go on your own too…"

"I didn't go to get your weapons because you all were mad at me," Mikey cut him off. Raph looked up in surprise at his younger brother's comment. "I went to go get them because I knew none of you meant it. I just wanted all of you guys to be happier. None of you are any fun in your dark mood ruts." Raph gazed at his younger brother before he chuckled darkly.

"Mikey. How the hell can you be so optimistic all of the time?"

"Look bro. Pain and suffering is inevitable but misery is optional." Mikey cheerfully grinned with these words.

Before Mikey knew what was happening, he was enveloped into a tight hug. His face hit Raph's collar bone as Raph's chin rested on top of his own head. Mikey's eyes widened further with surprise at the action, "Raph?" he said barely above a whisper. Yet as soon as the hug came it was gone, and Raph pulled back about half an arms length away. His stern sharp eyes gazed at his own soft confused ones.

Flick.

"Owww…What was that for?" Mikey rubbed his forehead where Raph's fingers made contact.

"Dat was fo' bein' a dumbass." despite the rather vicious connotation behind the meaning of the phrase, there was no mistaking the undertone of affection laced in Raph's voice. Mikey had never been aware that the term "dumbass" could be utilized as a term of endearment

"Hey. I'm injured," he pouted. Raph merely grinned.

"Don't hurt the patient Raph!" Don jogged in, tripping over the various items strewn over Mikey's floor in order to get to the bedside. "I heard yelling and…Mikey! How are you feeling? You've been asleep for a day and a half! Is there any dizziness? Can you feel your arm ok?"

"Well considering it feels like Yoko's board with nails in it, yeah, I'd say there's feeling," Mikey replied somewhat confused at the number of hours he slept. Sure he could sleep a long time but had he really been asleep _that _long?

Don lightly tapped Mikey's left finger tips, "Did you feel that?"

"Uh…yeah?"

Don let out a huge sigh of relief, "That is a great sign. That means there was no nerve damage as far as we can tell. We're still going to have to wait to see how the bone heals. You can't use that arm for at least three months, ok? That means you will loose a bit of muscle mass but you'll gain it back. Please try to keep the cast clean as you can alright? An please, please _please _never do that again…" Don began to list a bunch of other precautions mixed in with various reprimands for Mikey's actions, but to the youngest, it all went through one ear and out the other.

Mikey gave a warm smile. "Thanks Don." His youngest older brother looked at him bewildered for a moment before beaming with a gaze that said 'you're welcome.'

"Mikey? Mikey!" Leo seemed to magically teleport out of nowhere by his side. "Mikey! I'm so glad you're awake. I am so sorry! Are you in pain? I can't believe I let this happen to you. You shouldn't have gotten hurt. I'm so sorry I wasn't there..."

"Leo, stop!" Mikey yelled snapping Leo out of his mantra."First off, breath. You're turning the same color as your eye gear. Second off, it's not your fault. I don't blame you."

"But Mikey…"

"No buts!"_ 'Talk about role reversal.' _"It was my fault. I went after your stuff so please stop acting this way; it's weird."

"Oh, good." Leo paused in thought. "Now would you be so kind as to tell me… WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" Leo screamed causing Mikey to flinch.

'_I think I like panicky concerned Leo better.' _Mikey's expression contorted.

"How could you be so reckless? Do you have any idea the danger you put yourself in? You were acting like Raph! I can barely deal with one of him! Did you put even an ounce of thought into your actions!? Did you? I can't believe you acted so stupidly! Did you even consider…"

"Leo? Leo!" Red attempted to get Blue's attention.

"WHAT!"

"I yelled at 'im already." Raph patted his older brother on the shoulder. Leo stopped mid rant and looked his way.

"You did?"

"Yup."

"Oh good." He let his hand drop all malice in his voice instantly disappearing. "Then I don't have to do it. I am in no condition for this right now. Raph, where'd you put the aspirin? You used it last."

"I'll get it for ya later." He waved Leo off. Their Leader stood still for a moment before walking up to Mikey who was staring at his brother with apprehension.

"Mikey," Leo set his stare directly at Mikey's eyes (it was taking all of Mikey's willpower not to look away. It was intimidating when someone stares you directly in the eyes), "Never do that again, please." Leo sounded years beyond his age. Like a weary war torn veteran almost. Then again he had to deal with the thoughts that his little brother could have died, "You scared us. No, you terrified us. We…we can't afford losing you so please… don't leave on your own like that alright?" Mikey could only nod. He didn't like seeing Leo as unsure as he was now, "Good." Leo hesitated for a split second before he gave Mikey a one armed hug. He pulled back and plopped into the chair Raph had pulled up earlier, seemingly worn out.

"My Son." Mikey's head whipped from Leo to his doorway (where was his door?) to see his master standing there. There was a look, like he was reprieved of a heavy burden, across his face but it was quickly replaced with another expression. It was _the_ look.

"Sensei! You can't expect me to do flips like this! I'm injured!" Mikey was horror-struck reading into the understood meaning of _the _look.

"No, I do not intend for you to do flips in your current state," Mikey let out a breath of relief, "However you will have them added to your punishment tab for when you heal. And that will only be the beginning of the penalties that you will endure for this horrendously foolish act! How could you be so reckless, putting yourself in such danger? Your actions will not slide by so easily," he reprimanded an increasingly downcast Michelangelo. Suddenly his gaze diminished from the harsh one of a stern parent to the gaze of a loving concerned father, "However, your actions were courageous and your reasons from what I have heard were noble. For now my greatest concern has been quelled and I am simply glad you are okay," He pat his youngest affectionately on the head before pulling him into a light hug. Mikey hugged back.

"Thanks dad."

Splinter was terrified at the thought of loosing any of his sons but the concern for his youngest was different. Perhaps it was because he was the youngest, the most innocent and the most childlike of all of his sons that made him feel this way. He remembered back when he had first began to teach them ninjitsu, he considered not teaching the secret arts to Michelangelo at all or at least not until he was much, much older. He wanted to shelter this son from the burdens the knowledge would bring.

Yet after much deliberation he figured that would not be a wise or fair choice to his son. But it had been a hard decision. It was always hardest to let go of the youngest.

"Mikey. I know you're probably still exhausted but we need to hear the whole story on what happened when you went off," Don began. "I have a bad feeling that whatever is going on is much deeper then the Foot simply taking our weapons." Mikey nodded. So he began the story from the beginning.

0000000

"One question," Raphael interrupted Michelangelo's tale some time later.

"Yeah, Raph?"

"What the hell was up with that retarded song ya had playing?"

"Wha? The Numa-Numa song? It pisses you off," Mikey said matter-o-factly, "The music was so you guys wouldn't know I wasn't in my room if you listened through the door, and since I know that song annoys you, you wouldn't be able to focus on figuring if I was there or not anyway. Also, it was a good distraction to buy me more time," He shrugged.

"That was… actually pretty smart," Don admitted.

"See? I'm smart." A goofy grin crossed Mikey's face.

"Jus continue the story," Raph growled.

And Mikey did. He told them of the metal card he found that they had all missed (another fine example of his attentiveness to detail that they all did not seem to have), the foot surrounded building, the whole incident with the phone (Don was not happy with that part), how the ninjas gave up chase when he reached the elevator, and then how he came upon the weapons.

"…They were right there sitting in a storage closet of all places! Nothing was guarding them or anything. It was like they didn't care if I found them or not."

Leo, Don and Raph were all uneasy by this piece of knowledge.

"So I left and then I bumped into Mr. Destructobot, and he decided to play baseball; my arm being the ball." His brother's faces all darkened and Mikey regretted his choice of words, "Wait guys! It wasn't that bad! It's fine! See? Don patched me up real good!" He attempted to rouse there spirits.

"Mikey, it was that bad," Don started, "I…I didn't think I would be able to fix it at all. It was just…shattered. I had to completely rewire everything."

"So like, there's metal in my arm?" Mikey looked at his cast.

"Yes, and there are stitches. The metal I don't think I want to risk getting out since I'm not skilled in that field, but the stitches are biodegradable and will disappear on their own."

"Wa? How?" Mikey questioned, "I didn't know string could do that."

" Mikey? I didn't use string. I kind of used Sensei's fur."

Silence.

Mikey looked to see a bald patch on his sensei's arm, and then turned his gaze back at his own arm, "Okay... that is... really, really weird."

"Anyway, what troubled me the most was your blood pressure. It was bizarre. Generally, with an injury like the one you sustained, it causes your blood pressure to drop. Yours was skyrocketing."

"Well I guess that could have been from the cough-prilocaine-cough," Mikey mumbled.

Silence again.

"You….You injected yourself with prilocaine!" Don shrieked, "Are you insane! How much?"

"40 something mL I think…I wasn't really paying attention at the time," Don's look would have sent an army of foot ninja to an early grave, "Well my arm really hurt bad and I couldn't think straight, then I remembered that time Raph got metal stabbed in his arm so…" Mikey trailed off rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Don was at a complete loss for words. He wasn't sure if should've been proud that his flighty little brother actually recalled such a memory so precisely, or if he should smack him for his idiocy.

"Can I flick 'im again?" Raph questioned.

"Have at it."

"Hey…ow!"

"Guys, stop. He doesn't need more injuries." Leo intervened, "Mikey tell us the rest of what happened."

"I broke the robot thingy with Leo's sword and went unconscious. That's about it from there. Then I wake up and get this stupid itch which won't go away!"

"Don't scratch! You'll irritate the stitches." Don snapped catching Mikey's right hand as it reached to his forehead.

"But it's itchyyyyy," Mikey moaned.

"Well, deal with it for a little longer please? I'll be able to take those out in a couple of days but your going to have to be patient."

"Fine," Suddenly a look of remembrance crossed Mikey's face, "Oh…Wait hey! My nunchucks! Where'd they go? I'm sure I had them with me at the time. What'd you guys do with them?" A look of unease crossed his siblings' faces, "Guys? What's wrong?"

"Mikey. Your nunchucks are sort of…" Leo trailed off trying to come up with a gentle way of breaking it to his brother.

"Your nunchuck is about a million toothpicks now." Leo winced at Raph's bluntness.

Mikey's cheery disposition took a nosedive.

"Mikey, we're sorry." Don began but Mikey stopped him with a brilliant, forced grin.

"That's… That's fine guys. They were just… tools I guess. Just material things. It's no big…deal," There was a strain in Mikey's voice. It sickened Raph. He knew Mikey cared for his weapons as much as the rest of them cared for their own. Hell, the youngest referred to them as his _babies_ frequently.

When they had first all gotten their weapons, Raph had thought Mikey's weapons were just _stupid_. He did not see the logic behind a block of wood tied to another block of wood at _all_. It seemed to be more of a hazard to the user which was later proven true by the multiple times Michelangelo hit himself with the lethal spinning chunks of wood. But Mikey had cherished them and eventually stunned them all with his growing mastery of the complex style required to wield the nunchaku.

"I think I wanna go back to sleep." Mikey's voice was cracking.

"Yeah. You need your rest since your healing," Leo pulled Mikey's blanket up to his chin tucking his littlest sibling into bed, "We'll take care of everything so don't worry."

"Do not fret about your weapons my son," Splinter stroked his son's cheek, "This matter I will personally take care of." Mikey mumbled a thank you before fatigue caught up with him and he was out like a light.

These events made them all realize how important Michelangelo was to them, and it was at that moment they all made oaths to themselves that the people responsible for this whole mess would pay.

'_Those guys are gonna die,' _Raph vowed, even though he had no idea who 'those guys' truly were.

00000

Mikey was not a tea person. He couldn't see how anyone could drink boiled leaf juice, and without _sugar_ nonetheless.

It had been a couple of days since his confrontation with his family, and they all were treating him like he'd slip from behind them all and disappear. All of them, even Raph were basically waiting on him hand and foot so he wouldn't have to do anything but heal. For a while it was cool but it was quickly becoming more of a nuisance.

Mikey eyed the liquid warily, '_Are those leaves?'_ Flecks of green and brown matter swirled at the bottom of the cup. It looked like old stagnant water gotten from the bottom of a flower vase.

"It's black tea. It is good for the bones. Drink my son." Splinter ushered on.

"That's okay…I think I'll just take one of Donny's calcium chews inste…"

"Did I give you an option? No. Drink," Came the no nonsense reply.

Begrudgingly, he muscled the liquid down past his gag reflexes in one painful swig. It tasted grassy and bitter. He let out a disgusted, sharp exhale as he slammed the empty cup down. Splinter observed the cup to make sure no liquid remained. Content with the bare cup, he smiled at his son.

"Good. Now eat the breakfast your brothers so painstakingly prepared for you. I'll collect the dishes later and bring you afternoon tea." He said as he left, "For now I have an important manner I must see to."

"Yeah sure," Mikey stared at the plate of food Master Splinter brought him as his Sensei left the room.

Mikey appreciated what his brothers were doing for him. He really did. Yet this was intolerable. Despite their greatest efforts, his brothers were slowly starving their little brother to death.

He grimaced at his meal picking at his gooey undercooked egg with a fork. They had made a joint effort to make him a healthy wholesome breakfast of eggs, wheat toast, fruit, cottage cheese and milk. Note the effort part.

The egg was still clear in some places, the toast was burned to charcoal, the fruit (what used to be an apple) was a squishy brown lump from being manhandled too much, and the milk was sour. But his stomach was still grumbling in hunger so he had to eat something.

Then he got to the cottage cheese in hope. Even his brothers couldn't _possibly_ ruin cottage cheese. You just spoon it into a bowl. It required no preparation.

The moment he put the spoon into his mouth he realized how wrong he was, '_They…Microwaved it!_' He thought aghast, opening his mouth to let the clotted white mush drip back into his bowl. He sat like that for several minutes.

Mikey snapped.

"I can't take this anymore!!!!"

Between his Master attempting to drown him in several weird tea combinations for his "health" (the latest creation had been a mix of ginseng tea, cayenne pepper, lemon and freshly grated ginger) and his brothers several attempts at poisoning him (breakfast was only the latest attempt. The night before they had made him yellow wilted "greens" and a shriveled up, black coal like substance that they claimed had been a piece of meat at some point), he didn't know how much longer he would last.

0000000000000000

"_It's poetry in motion  
She turned her tender eyes to me  
As deep as any ocean  
As sweet as any harmony  
But she blinded me with science  
"She blinded me with science"  
And failed me in biology"_

"_When I'm dancing close to her  
"Blinding me with science - science"  
Science  
I can smell the chemicals  
"Blinding me with science - science"  
Science  
Science"_

"Donny I swear to God if you don't turn that white noise off I'm gonna rearrange your radio to be a can opener."

"What are you talking about? This is an 80's classic," He huffed.

"No Don. Guns and roses 'Sweet Child O' Mine' was an 80's classic. This crap's an 80's nightmare."

"Whatever Raph," Don mumbled to himself turning the volume down as he went back to assembling Mikey's shattered shell cell.

'_Well something are returning to normal,'_ Leo thought as he polished the blade of his sword.

It was at that moment that Mikey stormed down the hallway and into the kitchen. Leo, who had been sitting next to Raph cleaning his swords off (they were covered in oil and mechanical fluid from when Mikey stabbed the robot), set his sword down and wearily followed.

Raph, who was watching a rerun of Dogma on TV, looked over his shoulder to where his two brothers disappeared. He could here the two talking but he couldn't hear exactly what they were saying. He had a good idea though. Suddenly Mikey's voice rose and carried through the room.

"I DON'T CARE! One armed or not, in this kitchen I am _God_ so get the hell out!" Raph watched bemused as Leo was booted out of the kitchen door by an outstretched green leg.

"Wait…But Mikey…" Leo stopped as a hand patted him on the shoulder.

"Jus, let 'im. He ain't a complete cripple ya know." Leo did not look convinced. He wandered up back to the door and leaned up against the frame.

"Well, if I can't help, at least tell me, what are you making?"

"I'm making crepes," came the somewhat irritable reply as Mikey got out a carton of eggs.

"Wait…Don't you need help cracking the eggs with, you know...one hand?"

Mikey expertly cracked an egg on the side of the bowl with one hand, and emptied the contents with out a single piece of shell getting into the mix. He tossed the shells into the trash and grabbed another egg, "No. Not really."

"Oh. Right… Ok then…" pause, "You're positive?"

"Bro, I'm fine. Trust me when I say this: one of me, even one armed, in the kitchen is, no offense, far superior then three of you guys. I mean no harm dude, but none of you can cook to save your lives." He whisked the egg and then added enough milk to the mixture so that it turned a light lemon meringue color, "I don't know how you've all been living off of that stuff you've been making the past few days. You all would be so lost without me."

Leo chuckled at the irony of those words, "Yeah I guess we would be." So he went back to polishing his swords.

0000000

Mikey grinned contently as he flipped another thin crepe onto the plate before filling it with fresh sliced strawberries and rolling it up. He made enough for his whole family figuring they were all probably malnourished from their own cooking. He chuckled, "They really would all be so lost without me," he repeated.

Satisfied with the pile of crepes on the platter he picked them up with his right hand and began to walk out of the kitchen.

He had to stop moving as a dizzy wave came over him. His sight momentarily started to darken like when you stand up to fast, but the dizzy wave past quickly and his sight came back. He rubbed his eyes in annoyance at the experience.

Mikey then realized that the platter in his hand was not there anymore and he was no longer in the kitchen, but instead standing in the middle of the living room next to the couch, _'How'd I get over here?' _He wondered. Also, all of his brothers were staring at him slack-jawed like he had grown another head or something.

"Mikey…You just… You…" Don was at a loss of words.

"What? What did I do? How'd I even get out here?" Mikey looked around frantically.

"You don't remember?" Don was skeptical.

"Uhhh, should I remember?"

"We don't cook that bad, do we?" Leo asked Raph in awe.

"I dunno, but Mikey jus took Iron stomach to anotha' level," Raph was astonished.

"Iron? Then why does my tummy hurt?" Mikey ground as his stomach began to roll over itself, and this time it was not hunger pain.

"Well you just ate Leo's sword cleaning cloth…" Don stated simply.

Pause.

"I what?! EW! The one he uses to clean off all that blood, dirt, and oil off of…Uhhh, I think I'm gonna be sick."

Don shot his other brothers a concerned look as Mikey continued to gag dramatically.

From what don had observed, Mikey had walked out of the kitchen in a complete pensive daze, marched over to Leo, took the cloth he was using to wipe his blade clean and ate it. Then he seemed to snap out of the trance with no memory.

Something was not right.

0000000000

"We have got to figure out what happened to Mikey. That was not normal. I have a feeling something big is up." Leo began. The three of them were sitting on Leo's floor. Don had examined Mikey after the incident but had not found anything unusual. Yet, Don could tell by Mikey's spazzy panickyness that he was not joking when he said he had no recollection of ever leaving the kitchen. That made the three older ones highly concerned, "I have a feeling that something beyond our weapons being stolen is up and we need to find out what it is. Something must have happened to Mikey. So this is the plan. Since it seems the foot is involved I'll try to gather some information out in the city. I want you two to go to the lab from earlier and find clues there."

"One problem, Leo. Raph can't go." Don said.

"Um. Why exactly?" Raph questioned.

"You promised Mikey you'd stay remember?" Don reminded him, "Besides we should have someone here to watch him. Sensei's busy and Mikey might have another… lapse I guess you could call it." '_Also, Raph might do something stupid and let his rage cloud his judgment if he left,'_ yet he wasn't going to say that out loud.

Raph was not happy with this arrangement but he always kept his word (especially when his promise was directed to a certain baby brother of his.)

"Fine. But Don, you're not goin' to that lab alone." Raph mumbled.

"I _have_ to go. I'm the only one who would understand the lab enough to figure it out. We need a lead and that's our best bet. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?" Don's own brow creased at his words, _'Well that sounded like a jinx If I've ever heard one. Way to go Donny.'_

"I jus got one baby bro busted up at that place and I don't need the same thing happinen' to tha otha. You're not goin' alone."

"Well then what are we gonna do Raph? You promised Mikey you'd stay with him and Leo's going to be out investigating in the city."

"No, Raph's right. That place is dangerous. You should go with someone." Don looked in shock at Leo.

"Well who then?" Don asked annoyed.

"I've got someone in mind." Raph thoughtfully tapped his chin.

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'For being so adamant of me having back up, Raph must secretly want me to die.' Don thought as he clutched onto the waist of the person he sat behind for dear life.

"How's ya holdin' up back there?" A voice called from over the guttural roar of the motor bike. It belonged to none other than Casey Jones.

"Well, considering I've ingested about thirty bugs, just peachy!" Don sarcastically yelled in reply.

"Hey, its protein ain't it! Ope…yellow light! Hang on!" Casey revved the bike and did a wheelie much to Donnie's displeasure.

'_I think I'm going to have to start self medicating after this.'_

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(1): bastard

(2) My name is Mastuo Makoto.

Another chapter done. That last line was inspired by Stormy1x2. Dunno why but that idea cracked me up for some reason.

This chapter was a bit slow but necessary. This chapter was originally about twice this length but I ended up taking a lot of it and putting that for chapter 6 instead.

So are all of you confused on what is going on? Mwahahahaha! Only time shall tell. All will become clear.

Reviews loved. Flames for mellows. Any constructive criticism is appreciated greatly.


	6. Law 6

Thank you all for the reviews!

Yay! Chapter six! More shall be explained… Sort of. Slowly but surely the plot progresses!

Special note: Krimson65 I really adored that picture! It would be awesome if you posted it on your deviantart page (which I checked out by the way. Total awesomeness)

Disclaimer: You all know the drill. Don't own. Never will. Plot and plot devices are mine.

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**Murphy's Sixth Law: If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.**

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When they finally reached the docks, and the bike came to a complete stop, Don nearly crashed off the vehicle in desperation to touch solid ground.

"Oh sweet, blissful land!" Don crumpled on all fours in relief. Casey pulled off his helmet and got off.

"I don't drive dat bad ya drama king." He huffed, "Now, where is dis place we're looking for? Raph was kind of sketchy on the details." Casey thought back to when Raph had called him explaining the situation. He could hear Raph's anger rising when he spoke of the warehouse they had found Mikey, and instead of risking the cork popping on Raph's anger, and a possible blowout (which would, in turn, probably rupture the eardrum closest to the phones receiver), he quickly agreed to come over in order to cut the conversation short.

Yet that was calling the kettle black because Casey found himself also angry at what happened. He cared deeply for his four reptilian friends, and Mikey had that weird place in his heart. He was kind of like the little brother you always felt like shipping to Antarctica while the parents weren't looking, yet he was also the little bro that basically made you just feel necessary to protect when someone infringed on the 'no one but family can mess with me,' policy basically stamped all over him.

They were like the family he never had, and when someone messed with his surrogate little bros, they would be sure to hear from Casey Jones.

"It should be one of these warehouses." Don spoke observing his surroundings. It was almost twilight now and the sky was a dim orange color. It would be pitch black before they knew it.

"Ya mind specifyin'? They all look exactly the same." Casey asked.

"Number 431 I think. Just check the posts in front of the buildings. It should say." Don began to wander down the rows of old rusted buildings.

"431… What, you mean dat?" Casey pointed behind Don. The turtle whirled around and saw air.

"Casey there's nothing there…" then his eyes rested on the wooden spike with the rusted iron numbers 4, 3, and 1 nailed to it. "This is the place but… It's…It's not here! How can this be?" Don ran up to the empty lot only finding concrete, "This isn't possible! There is no way you can completely destroy a building in that short of time! How did they…" he stopped as something crunched under his foot into a powder substance. He lifted his foot to see black powder completely covering his heal, "Oh."

The warehouse had been completely burned down. In fact so thoroughly, not even the frame remained. Even the rusted chain link fence was destroyed. There was now a field of level, soft, powdery, black and white ash covering the ground, and under it was solid concrete. Even the underground level where the lab would have been had been destroyed completely.

"There has to be something left. Casey, look around for anything unusual, or anything mechanical. Heck, anything will do." Don walked into the lot sifting through the dust to find a trace of anything that might have survived the fire.

The vigilante did not have to go very far as something caught his eye in the middle of the ashen field, "'Ey! I think I found somethin'!"

"That was fast." Don jogged to where Casey was standing.

"Well it's kinda hard to miss," There was a large message on the ground made from ground chalk. It stood out sharply in contrast to the dark ash it was laying on. Each letter was a foot and a half in length.

"Be careful when walking around it. Even the lightest gust of wind could upset the dust and destroy the message." Don held an arm out in front of Casey to prevent the man from walking forward over the words.

"Well, what does it say?"

"Cartesian dualism Cogito, ergo sum."

"I meant in English."

"It says 'I think, there for I am.' It's a quote by Rene Descartes. He was a philosopher during the renaissance probably most known for moving the world past Scholasticism, and into true rational, logical thinking during that time. He was truly a genius: he attempted to apply the rational deductive methods of science, and particularly of mathematics, to philosophy. He rejected the limitations of scholastic…Are you even listening to me?"

Casey snapped out of his blank gaze aimed toward the space behind Don, "Uh…No. Not really," he replied truthfully. Don rolled his eyes.

"This has to be a clue of some sorts. I imagine that the message is directed toward us or else why would they go through the trouble?" Carefully, so he wouldn't disturb the powdery ground and lose the message, he tiptoed so he stood right next to the large letters and was staring directly overhead of it.

Donny pulled out his small notepad from where it was tucked in his belt and began to write down the quote on the paper. There didn't seem to be anything that stood out from the image on the ground. It was just chalk, and a pair of eyes…

Don double took the message. There was a pair of eyes with red irises that were staring at him through the ash. They blinked. Don blinked. They stared. Don shrieked.

Casey grabbed the back of the purple clad turtle's shell and yanked him back, preventing him from being grabbed by a spindly, freakishly long, black arm that shot out from the ground where the word 'dualism' had been.

The arm stayed in the air for a brief moment before bending sharply and landing palm down on the ground. To Don's horror another arm reached out of the ground, a mushroom cloud of dust lifted from where the appendage spouted from, and grasped the black earth as well. A body slowly followed, as the figure pulled itself out of the ground like a swimmer lifting him self out of a pool by the edge.

The figure was tall and extremely thin. If you could imagine an extremely muscular emaciated person, that was what stood before them. It was probably roughly 7 feet tall with arms of a distorted length that dragged near the figures knees. It was dressed in a black armor with steel toed boots just as the beast Mikey had gone up against, but this one was sleeker with the numbers "1650" printed boldly in white across its chest. It did not have the same jagged sharp appearance anywhere except its arms. Flashes of white accented the creature. It had a faceless mask just like the earlier mechanical monster. However, there were two holes reveling bulging blood red eyes.

Don's jaw dropped but no words came out as the being hunched over and began taking long strides toward them with its elongated thin legs.

"Holy freakin tap-dancing Splinter on a pogo stick!" Casey masterfully articulated. Hastily, he grasped the handle of his wooden bat, dragged it out of his golf bag, and held it protectively in front of him, "You Forgot ta mention the ugly monsta' dude in da job description!"

"It must be another robot like the one Mikey fought earlier. Keep your guard up," Donatello eyed the approaching figure with reservation, "And whatever you do don't let that thing grab you." This was a good piece of advice. The creatures spindly, spider like hands had rows of needle like spikes protruding from the palms and bottoms of the fingers. Almost like the walls of an iron maiden.

"Okay you…Whateva' the hell you are! Time fo' ya ta get acquainted with my lil' buddy hea 'Jose Canseco'!" Casey charged, ignoring Don's calls telling him to stop, toward the creature. It stared blankly and unblinkingly at Casey with its bulging red eyes. With a powerful side swing, Casey rammed the bat into the things thin, rippled side.

Splrch.

There was no metal clank or mechanical crashing noises. Instead there was a squishy squelch. Casey almost let go of his bat in surprise and disgust but didn't have time to as he was back handed sharply across the face by a large metal hand. It sent him reeling back into the powdery dirt.

Donny winced, "At least it wasn't the sharp side of the hand," he murmured as he watched an ash blackened Casey Jones quickly recover and scurry away from the creature holding his jaw, _'It's a good thing Casey's skulls so thick or that could've been a lot worse.'_

"That thing jus' bitch slapped me! Ow," the long haired man tested his jaw which luckily did not break on impact. There was a nasty violet colored mark appearing on his cheek and it was rapidly swelling, "Okay. Dat thing's not completely metal. At least not it's middle."

"Incredible. It must be a hybrid of organic and mechanical technology. It's far more advanced than that last one," Don watched in a melancholic curiosity as it snapped Casey's bat in half. On the creatures side there was a concave, half circle dent where the bat hit. With an odd, slimy, popping noise the dent filled itself in like it had never been there at all.

"Whateva. Jus' remind me ta upgrade my gear from wood to aluminum when we get back."

Dropping the pieces of wood that used to be Casey's bat, it took off in a dynamic run toward Don, shocking the turtle with its speed. Donny only had enough time to move his Bo staff directly in front of him, impaling the creature.

It took no notice of its injury and merely grabbed the Bo, cracking the wood in many places with the rows of needles on its hands, and removed it from its middle (there were icky squelching noises as this happened). The turtle was lifted into the air by his own staff.

"DONNY!" There was a slight undertone of panic in Casey's voice as he scrambled to his feet, and ran in attempt to aid his friend.

Don hung there seemingly unable to let go of his staff. His mind was moving slowly from the shock, and all thoughts were overruled by an observation he made as he stared down at the robot, _'Huh. 1650 was the year Descartes died._' the monster raised its other arm high into the air ready to ram Don with a spike filled slap.

"Hang on Brainiac!" Casey, now armed with a hockey stick, smashed his weapon into the beings arm successfully snapping his own stick on it. Loosing interest in Donny momentarily, 1650 dropped the turtle and went to attack Casey. It slammed its hand down clipping the side of Casey's right leg. This gave him a relatively deep gash and ripped his pants, "Aw dis was my favorite pair of jeans." Casey exasperated as he tripped.

'_Casey?_' Don came to his senses relatively quickly, and lashed his Bo out in a side strike, hitting Casey in the abdomen and swiping him out of harms way just as spike filled fist came upon the spot Casey had just stood.

"Next time ya save me, could ya not do it so hard?" Casey wheezed winded. Donny ignored him.

"We've got to find this thing's weakness! It doesn't seem that you can simply break it by hitting it aimlessly."

"But the piñata technique has always worked!" Casey was aghast.

"We have to be smart about this. There must be something we've missed," He looked around for anything that could assist the two and spotted the partially destroyed quote on the ground. The words were smudged or swept away completely yet it triggered something in Donatello's mind.

"Casey! I think, therefore I am!" Don yelled. Casey took immediate offense.

"Hey! Jus cause I ain't a supa genius like yous don't mean I don't think!"

"No! Casey! The robots mind! Get rid of its head and it'll probably stop moving! It'll cease to be!" Don avoided the deadly reach of the lanky being, "Just follow my lead!" skidding, he tore off in the opposite direction toward the creature he had been trying to avoid, "I have got to time this just right… Now!"

Just as the monster had brought both of its arms up, Donatello catapulted himself over the monsters head landing on its back. Locking his knees on its sides so he wouldn't fall, he grabbed his Bo with both hands, and just as the creature started reaching up over its head to grab the turtle, he swung his Bo over the monsters head and yanked it back in a choke hold, successfully trapping its hands to its shoulders.

#1650 reacted to this with an unearthly shriek that sounded like metal grinding on metal. It lashed and swung its body to and fro in attempt to buck the turtle, clinging frantically to its back, off.

"Now Casey! Attack the head! Destroy it!" Donny lurched his weight forward knocking the robot onto its stomach and tried to keep it pinned down as it thrashed.

"What d'ya say? I couldn't hear!" Casey called over the lanky creatures shrieking.

"JUST HAPPY GILMORE IT ALREADY!" Don yelled in frustration.

Grinning, Casey got the message and drew a golf club from his bag.

Taking a running start, he took the golf club high in the air. Getting into position, by crossing over his left leg with his right leg adding more power, he swung the club violently at the creatures head, and lopped it clean off its shoulders.

The head landed with a soft thud in the ashy field some several feet away. The body of the creature stopped moving instantly. Only sparks showered from its severed neck.

Don rolled off the decapitated body and onto the ashy earth, not caring that the dark powder was clinging to his sweaty body. Casey let out a laugh, "We look like reject powda'd donuts." Don chuckled at this.

"That's better than like inside out jelly donuts like that thing was trying to turn us into." Don replied.

Casey dropped to the ground bringing his leg up to his body. He scrutinized the gash on his calf and scowled, "Aw great… Now there's gonna be lil' jean fibers and strings in the wound and it's gonna hurt like hell getting them out. Jus' great! Come on genius; let's get back to the Lair before morra dose things decide ta show up."

"Just give me one moment," Donatello treaded carefully to the creatures severed head. He carefully began prodding until he found a small button at the base of its head. Pressing it, a small slot opened and ejected a long rectangular object like a CD, "This is the motherboard. If I hack it, I might be able to find out what this thing is and what's making them." He said to Casey as the vigilante stood up.

"**Futile**." Casey and Donatello both nearly jumped out of there skins as the severed head on the ground _spoke_. Donatello fell backwards and scooted away as the heads bulging red eyes directed their stare toward him.

"Freakin hell, it talked!" Casey pointed.

"You're sentient." Don spoke in disturbed awe "What are you?"

"**Descartes is what I am assigned**." It replied, "**Names are so long forgotten. We are merely barely conscious beings as they try to…perfect us. As they augment us turning us to empty to shells to achieve the one, the key to **_**his**_** revenge**."

"Revenge? Who's revenge? Against us? What did we do?" Donny questioned frantically getting out his small notebook so he could record all that 'Descartes' said.

"**I was left here in this empty 'stage', as the nameless one refers to it, to deliver a m-message. Y-you will all l-lose your heart. Just as **_**he**_** lost his," **Its voice track began to skip and the head began to malfunction.

"Dat's ratha morbid doncha think?" Casey spoke. Don glared at him.

"Who left you here? What do you mean by our heart?" Don asked again but the head was beginning to shut itself down.

"**You will-l all lose y-your heart," **it repeated,** "And… and…** **W-we of the renaissance g-g-give our ode, to the departed painter, Michelangelo…**" Its voice cut off and the machine died.

"What!?" Don let his notepad drop out of his hands, thoroughly horrified as realization was clicking in place. Despite any reservations, he grabbed the severed head and began screaming at it, "What about Mikey?! Turn back on you stupid thing. What about Mikey!?!" he gave it a violent shake but the dead machine did not answer. His hold loosened and the head slowly slid out of his grip falling onto the ground. A cloud of disturbed soot swirled in its wake before settling back down.

"Nope. You guys can't make enemies with a cranky old dude playing chess down the road. It always has ta be _ninja's_, or _aliens,_ or _supa_ ninjas, or freakin big monster _robots_." Casey counted off his fingers, "Why can't you guys just be normal giant mutant turtles?"

'_Yeah. Why couldn't we be_,' Don groaned internally.

Casey and Don both watched as the severed head began to instantly decompose, like a rotting corpse on fast-forward, until there was nothing left but a murky black puddle that the dry ashy land quickly absorbed, "Okay, ew. That was nasty." Casey wrinkled his nose.

"So it was designed to serve its purpose than disappear. It was disposable." Don wiped his eyes trying to remove some of the grime that clung there, but he only managed to smear it with the sweat on his hands making a thin muddy streak, "This is just so frustrating. I feel like I've been given a puzzle with missing pieces, and the more pieces I find, the more complicated creating the picture becomes."

"Well ain't that nice, but we have otha problems right now. You're gonna hafta drive. I can't exactly put tha petal to the metal with one leg."

"Yeah," Don nodded picking up his forgotten notepad. He slung one of Casey's arms over his shoulders to act as a crutch and helped him limp back to the motor bike, "And Casey…Thanks. If you didn't step in there I probably would have been skewered." Casey shot him a grin.

"Hey, no prob. I promised Raph I'd look after ya, and even if I didn't, you're family now so I'd do it anyways. You're kinda like the genius little bro I neva had. The one that got bumped up six grades and always shows me up on math exams."

Don smiled, "And I guess that makes you the hard head, headstrong older brother… like Raph's twin or something." as they reached the bike and began putting there helmets on, he could only think of the cryptic message Descartes had left him with.

'_I hope Leo's having more luck then I am.'_

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Leo was having zero luck.

Why did it seem like when you actually _wanted_ to find the Foot they never showed up? Then when you wanted nothing to do with them and avoided them like the plague, lo behold here they come!

'_Oh right. What did Don call it? Murphy's Law I think. Never happens when you want it too, but it does when you don't. Go figure,' _He thought grimly.

He moved swiftly and silently under the nights shade, the sun had set a while ago, jumping roof top to roof top with an awing display of acrobatics.

He had checked all of the locations they had found the Foot in the past, but there were no traces. He saw a few purple dragons loitering around but they weren't stirring up to much commotion and he simply ignored them.

"Well if they won't come to me, I'll go to them. What better place to look than the source." He looked off at the cities horizon to see a familiar building stand out. For the most part it looked like a normal building, but what looked like a traditional Japanese palace adorned the top. On the side of the building, in bright red neon, flashed the Foot clan's symbol: the three toed dragon print.

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She hated politics. She hated them with a passion.

Yet Karai figured it was a necessary evil that she had to deal with considering the position she took over from her father. Yet she didn't know how much more she could take.

She crossed her dimly lit office lethargically, fuming.

It was always the same things. Empty negotiations, fake concerns, hidden greed and agendas, total corruption… Politicians were all the same. Moreover, the ones with true ideals that chose the right thing over the desirable things were all swept under the rug and over shined by the liars that preached what people wanted to hear. Yet despite how much she despised such people, she had to deal with the honorless swine almost everyday.

If she had to listen to one more "for the good of mankind" speech from a lowly greedy bastard that simply wanted to pocket funding money, she swore she would stab chopsticks into here ears.

She dropped, exhausted from the dinner meeting she had been forced to attend (she had an image to keep up for the outside world), into the chair at her desk. She let her head drop, slamming her forehead into the desk. Without looking up, she pressed a red button on the intercom sitting a few inches away.

"Yes mistress Karai?" a sweet, feminine voice wafted from the small box's speaker.

"Marcel, bring chamomile tea to my quarters immediately please," Karai muttered somewhat inaudibly since her face was currently muffled by her desks surface.

"Yes mistress." The voice apparently successfully deciphered the garbled demand and obliged cheerily, "Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Earlier today you were sent an invitation from the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding: Daniel Doctoroff. Remember Mistress? He's the one that oversees and coordinates the operations of the Department of Buildings, the Department of City Planning, and related agencies. He requests your audience this Thursday."

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"Mistress? Are you alright?" came the concerned voice.

Karai lifted her head up, a red mark now marring her pale forehead from where she had repeatedly slammed it onto the hard surface of her desk, and propped her head up with her chin on her desk instead of her face. With a heavy sigh she replied, "I am perfectly fine. Tell him…" _'Shove your invite up where the sun does not shine!'_ her mind screamed. Her face twisted with hesitance, and she sighed deeply, "…that I except his generous offer. I will be there," she was not very enthusiastic.

She was not suited for this. She was ninja! She was a being of the shadows and stealth. She was a nonentity, a creature of the night whose existence was but a whisper on the wind. She was not a figure head to be flaunted in the light of day, or a chess piece in the game of society.

Yet that was the roll she now had to play. Ninja by night yet come day, a false front to be shown off to the outside world, _'Father what have you left me with?' _she griped internally at the burden left on her shoulders from her deceased father.

"Will do Mistress!" the voice over the intercom was not brought down by Karai's depressed tone, "Also, your tea will be up in a moment," with that, the small speaker went silent.

Lazily, Karai pushed herself off her desk and slouched into her chair. She began to straighten the stack of papers on her desk that she had mussed up.

She tensed as she felt cold steel pressed against her throat. Gritting her teeth she closed her eyes in irritation. This was not what she needed, "What is it you want Leonardo?" she asked callously setting her hard jade stare to the blue clad turtle.

"I wish to speak to you." He said coldly. His features were obscured by the dark shadows of her office, but the voice was unmistakable.

"Surely there are more civil ways to talk?" she quickly knocked the sword away from her throat with her forearm, and jumped back giving her and Leo some distance between them, "Why do you come here? I am not in the best of moods."

"As if you didn't know," Leo spat keeping his sword aimed at Karai, "Why did you have your Foot ninja steal our weapons?"

Karai's green eyes widened in genuine surprise, "I have no idea on what you are speaking of. Your weapons are also clearly with you." She pointed to his swords.

"Don't play games with me, Kurai!" Leo stepped forward menacingly, "My younger brother was harmed because of you!"

"I have not launched any attacks toward you four recently. I have been consumed by other matters. I have no idea what you are talking about!" She retaliated. How dare he accuse her!

"The people we ran into were clearly Foot ninja, and you're telling me you had nothing to do with that? Or what about that machine?" He let his sword drop slightly yet was still on guard.

"Machine? My labs have not put forth any efforts toward creating things to harm your family. I have told you, I have been consumed by other more pressing issues as of late." Idiotic images and politics, she thought resentfully.

As Leo thought about it, the robot did not seem to be like anything the Foot had created before. Normally, the creatures created by the Foot were red, black, jagged and often modeled after the ancient looking armor the shredder wore. The one they found was sleek, modern, black and white, and unlike anything the Foot had ever made.

"Are you telling me the truth?" he questioned.

"Why would I lie," she challenged.

Leo stared hard into Karai's eyes and was surprised to see no deceit in there. That or she was a really good actor, "I believe you." He sheathed his swords.

Karai took this action in surprise, "A trick your master taught you? Reading into people's emotions?"

"Something like that. It's called trusting your gut." He turned to the open window he had entered from, "But so help me Karai, if I find you had a hand in this…" He didn't finish his thought as he stepped onto the ledge outside.

Karai stood there and watched his retreating figure trying to collect her thoughts. Foot ninja stole the Hamato clans' weapons? Did a group of her soldiers act without command? No, she had too much of an iron grip on her forces for that. They were loyal. Unless it was…

Something dawned on her, "Leonardo!" she called impulsively before she could stop herself. The turtle looked over his shoulder expectantly back at her, "There was a small group of rogue Foot that abandoned the main body of the clan after I took over." Karai started uneasily. She had no idea why she was telling him this. It was probably the stress of the day getting to her, "I know little about them or even their reason for isolating themselves. However, if you are under attack, I am sure it would be them. The one thing I know about them is that one of my fathers foot elite joined with them, a man named Makoto Matsuo."

Foot elite. The man who had taken Mikey hostage in exchange for their weapons fit the bill perfectly both in appearance (lacking the cloak however) and in mannerism.

Leo looked back in surprise, "You're sure of this? Why are you telling me?"

"I have no idea," she answered honestly, "Just leave my sight. I have had a long day and do not wish to deal with the likes of you." She waved him off exhausted.

As Leo vanished, she was almost positive she heard him whisper a "Thank you."

She walked back to her desk and collapsed back into her chair. For the second time she pressed the button on her intercom.

"Miss Karai? Your tea will be there shortly. It's already on its way."

"Please send some aspirin as well." Kurai demanded tiredly.

"Yes Mistress Karai."

Groaning, Karai dropped her head to her desk again, not even rising to look when a small platter with an elaborate teakettle, blue willow cup and bottle of painkillers was set down on her desk.

Yes. She truly hated politics.

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Raph was bored out of his mind.

Leo and Don where gone actually being useful, Mikey was asleep, and Splinter was holed up in his room working on a secret project of sorts.

And he was sitting on the couch being a useless lump.

"Stupid, stupid me and stupid promise," he grumbled to himself folding his arms, slouching in the couch. Despite how much he was regretting it, he new it was necessary to keep a hawk's eye on Mikey.

The sooner this was all over the better.

Raph, in the past week had been swamped by more emotions then he could handle. Confusion, sadness, fear, relief, worry, love and anger all swarmed him in one monstrous wave that was pulling at him. It felt like each of his limbs were tied to different horses, each representing a different emotion, and they all bolted in opposite directions.

None of this was good for his nerves. It made him on edge, it made him paranoid, it made him like _Leo_. He didn't even realize how jumpy this was making him until the…false alarm that happened a bit earlier.

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_Raph had been brooding over at being left at the Lair, attempting to blow some steam off by beating the living daylights out of his punching bag (he needed to replace the duct tape at the bottom. It was beginning to leak sand). _

_He was imagining his bag was the person responsible for the whole mess. He was drawing his fist back for a particularly powerful punch, but as he launched It, his train of thought and focus was derailed by a shrill shriek that rang from Mikey's room._

_The punch he had been aiming at his battered bag, missed by a foot sending him toppling forward. In panic at his brother's frantic cry, he tripped over weights, weapons and stairs in desperation to get out of the dojo and into his little brothers room._

_He didn't even bother taking the time to open Mikey's newly repaired door. It would only waste precious seconds. So, he instead rammed it full force with his shoulders, snapping the poor plank of wood off its hinges for the second time._

"_Mikey!" He jumped in, masterfully avoiding stepping on the various items strewn around; brandishing his Sais looking around desperately for an adversary that possibly was threatening his little brother. He saw no one, but Mike was sitting dejectedly on his cluttered floor. Raph dropped his Sais, each landing with a thunk, and knelt in front of his brother, placing both of his hands on the smaller ones shoulders._

"_Mikey what's wrong? Can you hear me? Oh no, it must be one a' those lapses Don was talkin' about! What do I do?" Raph paused as he heard Mikey mumble incomprehensibly, "What Mikey? What was that?" he asked in worry._

"_I can't find my sketchbook."_

_Silence._

"_That's it?" Raph asked dully, all fear draining from his body._

"_What do you mean is that it?" Mikey asked angrily, "Do you know how much work is in there? I've had it for years and now it's gone!"_

"_You spaz!" Raph roared reeling both of his hands back, and throwing them into the air, "You freaked out because you lost your sketchbook! I oughta…" He stopped short as Mikey gave him the LOOK._

_While it was true that 'the look' was trademarked to Splinter, 'the LOOK' was clearly all Mikey and had a completely different effect. _

_Raph cursed the being that invented the unbreakable spell that was the puppy dog pout._

"_I just wanted to show you that picture," Mikey sniffled sadly. He gazed up at Raph, freezing his older brother in place with his big, shining, milk chocolate colored brown eyes. Raph immediately felt guilty. _

'Stupid little brothers and their pouts. Must be some damn built in defense system or something,'_ Raph theorized since his other little brother, Donatello, had a similar look. Only he didn't use his nearly as often, and while effective, it was not nearly as powerful as Mikey's, "Leo had it last. He was lookin' through it." Raph responded avoiding Mikey's wobbling eyes the best he could. Mikey's sadness turned to horrification._

"_He looked through all of it? As in the whole thing and not just one pictures! You guys aren't supposed to do that! A lot of stuff in there's not done yet!" He was getting defensive over his art._

"_What the hell are ya worryin about ya knucklehead? Allo' your stuff is really good," Raph grumbled flicking his brother on the forehead which Mikey responded to with an "ow! Hey!" (Raph couldn't exactly slap him upside the head as he usually did.) "Specially your last drawin'." Raphael whispered as an after thought._

"_You, you saw that?" Mikey asked. There was an inhibited hope shining in his eyes._

"_Yeah, it was really good," Raph smiled at his little brother's enthusiasm, his anger suddenly melting away, "But when your arm gets better there's something ya nee ta fix. You omitted the most important part of tha whole drawin." Mikey looked puzzled._

"_What?" he asked._

"_Ya forgot to put yourself in it."_

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Soon after that, he retrieved Mikey's sketchbook from Leo's room and gave it to him. His orange clad sibling snatched it away possessively, all the while smiling like an idiot. Almost as soon as he got it back, Splinter came through the door brandishing the third cup of tea Mikey was to drink for the day. This combination; an even mixture of Catnip, Peppermint, Passion Flower, Oatstraw, and Chamomile; was designed so Mikey could have a peaceful sleep, un-plagued by his broken limb. It was also the only tea that Mikey actually kind of liked the taste of.

Soon after drinking it, Michelangelo was out like a light.

After tucking his little brother in snuggly while being careful of his full cast, broken left arm, Raph asked Master Splinter why he didn't take action when Mikey screamed. Splinter responded saying that he knew it was not a scream of panic, fear, or alarm, but of one of frustration, (Splinter-"Despite being old, these ears can pick up on sound wavelengths you and your brothers can not hear. I have been around you all long enough to distinguish the sounds you all make and the various emotions buried within them.") Leaving on that remark, the old ninja master wandered back to his room to resume the project he had been working on for the past few days.

So, that left Raphael on the couch with nothing to do, "Why the hell is everyone so freakin slow?" he was getting agitated at the lack of his brothers presence, _'Go figure. I can't stand them while they are here yet can't function when there not.'_

Off in the distance he heard the elevator that led to the garage open.

"Geeze, Don. I didn't know my bike could go under 20 miles per hour wit out fallin' over." Casey's voice sounded off behind Raph. He looked over his shoulder to see the two walking into the living room.

'_It's about time they got back,' _Raph grinned getting up.

"I was going something called the 'speed limit'. You should try it sometimes. It makes you less prone to 'road protein' as you called it." Don snapped back.

"Hey, it's all part of tha experience. The air in your hair, tha bugs in your teeth..."

"Hey guys! I was wonderin' when you two would get back so …" Raph halted in front of the two. They both looked like gray smudges, and every time Casey moved, a cloud of dust would rain from his hair, "What happened to you guys? I thought you were checkin' out that lab not sweepin chimneys."

"It was gone. The warehouse was burned down there was nothing left but ash, hence forth our new attire." Don motioned to their grime covered bodies.

"Oh! But guess what? Member tha' hellbot yous was tellin' me about? He had a bro. And dis one tried to poke us wit more holes than Swiss cheese." Casey winced instantly clutching his leg.

"Whoa, Case! You gotta get that patched up," Raph went to his friend's side eyeing the red stain blossoming on his calf.

"Tis but a flesh wound," the man said with mock valiance, "No, seriously, it's not that bad. I jus got clipped. Man, I really wanna shower. I've got dirt an' ash in rather uncomfortable places. Geeze, tha' stuff got inta my ears."

"Knock yourself out. But as soon as you get out I'll have to patch that cut up. You don't want it infected." Don suggested. The injury wasn't life threatening, but could cause problems if it got infected.

"Yeah. Then maybe we'd hafta amputate," Raph teased. Casey glared.

"Whateva. I'll be back," He limped to the bathroom punctuating each step with an "ow".

"Aw, he's trallin' blood. Great." Raph grumbled to himself watching the ever growing crimson trail dotting after Casey. He then turned his attention to his little brother, looking him over for injuries, "What about you Donnie? You ok? You weren't hurt too where ya'?"

"No. Casey prevented that from happening," he mumbled. "But we have a bigger issue at hand. Where's Mikey?" Don asked urgently.

"He fell asleep a while ago." Raph answered steadily.

"Did anything happen to him?"

"Nothing note worthy," Raph grunted, _'Donny's gonna be pissed I broke the door again, but he don't need ta know that right now.'_

"Good. We have a whole new slew of problems we need to sort out. Whoever has been making these robots and ordered for our weapons to be stolen I think is specifically after Mikey."

"What?" Raph said in surprise, "That don't make any sense, Don. If they were after 'im, they could've gotten him twice already."

"I know, I know…"Don was frustrated, "It doesn't make alot of sense, but that thing Casey and I went up against said it was delivering a message. It said we will all lose our heart." Raph gave him an odd look.

"We're gonna loose our hearts," Raph dead panned with an undertone of skepticism.

"No Raph. Not hearts. Our _heart_."

Raph pondered for a moment before a rather unpleasant thought crossed his mind, "Wait you don't think…" Don's silence was good as any reply, "Why Mikey?"

"I don't know," there was anxiety saturating Don's voice, "But that was the first half. The second half is what really got me, 'We of the renaissance give our ode to the departed painter, Michelangelo.'" He recalled from his photographic memory.

"No," Raph declared sharply, "I'm not gonna have these bastards screw around with us, 'specially not with Mikey! What the hell do they want from us?"

"Calm down Raph. I could be wrong. I could just be misinterpreting the messages. We need to think of every possibility with an open mind though."

"You're not wrong," Raph started, "Remember that building on fire a few nights ago? The one that caused our detour?"

"What of it?" came the uneasy reply.

"Leo an' I were watchin the news, ya know tryin to keep our minds offa things until you were done wit Mikey's arm. That buildin' was the first thing we saw." He paused, "Two girls died in that fire."

"That's… I don't mean to sound heartless, but that's irrelevant to our situation, Raph."

"Their names, Don, where Michelle and Angelica. Say them together and what does that sound like to ya?"

Comprehension lit Donatello's face, "No way. Even that time... They really are after him aren't they?" Even with that fire a subtle message was left behind.

"It doesn't matter though. Whatever they have in store, we're not gonna let them go through with." Raph would see to it that Mikey would not be hurt by those bastards again.

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Dr. X did not like this room at all. It was too _dark_. He was much more comfortable in bright places. Not only that but it strained his eyes. The only source of light was the soft green glow of a cylindrical pillar that stood in the corner on the other side of the room (there was something floating in it as well), but it did as much good as a glow stick in a canyon at night.

Not only that, but the room was designed stupidly. There was a short set of stairs, only three or so steps that led up from the door when you entered, and since he couldn't actually see them, he always tripped over them.

Like now.

After a short, none to graceful trip to the floor and a whiny "Owww", he picked himself up and dusted his white lab coat off. Then, he picked his left foot up, balancing on one leg, and kneaded the toe where a dull pain was beginning to form. The worst part of stubbing ones toe was probably the split second your brain has to go "uh oh," before pain registers.

He knew ninjas were generally infatuated with the dark, but couldn't they let even a little light in there life sometimes? It wasn't like they were off ninja-ing all of the time. Could they be at least be a little more considerate to there non-ninja compatriots? Just because _they_ could see in the dark like cats didn't mean everyone else could.

"Dr. X," a dead sounding voice echoed through the empty room. Through the darkness, X could see the silhouette of a man that was just barely outlined by the emerald light that radiated from the lava lamp like cylinder off in the corner.

"Yes sir," he said with mock attentiveness. There was some mumbling that followed, "Sorry sir but could ya speak up? My hearing's not all that good," X scratched his clothed ear.

"Did the test work?" the soulless voice questioned.

"Yeah. It was successful," X snickered at the rather amusing memory, "Do you want me to go on with the next part of your plan?"

"No. I want them to squirm a bit longer. Let them follow the trail of breadcrumbs for a while more." The broken voice responded.

'_Why do these guys always have to drag things out? Just burning them all would be so much easier…And quicker. Evil Crazies and their "revenge" plots,_' X rolled his eyes. Not that he himself was much better than an evil crazy, but he liked to think of himself a tad bit saner and a whole lot more realistic than most malevolent people, "What ever you say boss."

"Was the message was delivered?" the voice deadpanned.

"Yes. It was." X replied only half in thought. His toe was throbbing something dreadful from his fall, "They think they're putting the puzzle together now. I just think they're confused." He shrugged.

He could see the man across the rooms green profile move over to the glowing canister. The dull light cast creepy angular shadows on the man's face making him look like something out of a horror movie (or like a kid shining a flashlight under his chin.)

"That is perfectly fine. They will understand eventually, but not until I wish for it."

"Well, okay then." There was an awkward silence, "Can I go now?"

"One more thing I want you to do," The man tossed something into the air. X caught it with an outstretched hand. It was a tiny card with a message written on it, "Do what you do best." The shadowed man commanded.

Though you could not see Dr. X's face, it was understood he was grinning ear to ear. This was always the fun part. Yes, not only was he a mechanical genius, but Dr. X was also a pyromaniac, _'A jack of all trades.'_ He sniggered to himself. "Will do Boss man!" He gave a two finger salute and pulled a pack of matches from his coat pocket. Yet the shadowed figure was not giving him an eggcup's worth of attention anymore. Instead, his focus was on the glowing cylinder and the object floating in it.

His grin melted off as he realized his employer was no longer paying attention to him, but was muttering incoherently to the big 'lava lamp' in the corner, "He's smart, but he's crazy. Why do I always end up working for the crazy ones?" X grumbled as he walked off and out of the dark room.

He stumbled over the short set of steps on the way down as well.

As he was leaving, he caught the whispered words of his employer, "Soon I will have my revenge for you." He spoke endearingly to the green cylinder.

"Yup. I always get the nut jobs don't I? Oh well, as long as he's sane enough to sign my paycheck. Time to get busy! Perhaps I should find 'George' later after the jobs done, and maybe take him out for a drink. Heaven knows that guy has a few screws wound to tight. I wonder if all of these ninja's get a sticks shoved up their asses as some form of initiation or something. Not my problem though," Cheerily he began to whistle the tune of 'Burn Baby Burn.'

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A.N: fixed the Karai thing. While I wrote her part I was thinking of a different characters version of the spelling. Sorries (sheepish grin)

Geeze, these chapters keep getting longer and longer X.X, but I'm having a great time writing them so I don't mind.

Casey is so much fun to write for some reason. Don't really know why, he just is.

Actually, this whole chapter was fun to write. I'm not particularly a Karai fan but I had fun writing about her. Her character is good writer stock. Not that it matters since she does not really have much of a role at all in this story. It was sort of a cameo.

Anyway reviews are loved (they're my motivation), flames for marshmallows, and constructive criticism appreciated


	7. Law 7

Chapter 7! WHOOT!

To all who reviewed thank you! You guys are all loved!

I'm going to be going on a trip really, really soon so this might be the last update until I get back. I'll try to update before I leave but I'm not promising anything. I'm leaving in about a week and won't be back until around July 6 (Going to Japan and I'm not even gonna try to figure out the computers there.)

(P.S. The song in chapter 5 was called she blinded me with science by Thomas Dolby)

Disclaimer: I don't own. I never will. Plot and plot devices, however, are mine.

On with the fic!

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**Murphy's Seventh Law: Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.**

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"Well that was a bust," Leo murmured to himself as he walked slowly over the roof of the building he was on. The Foot building was far behind him off in the horizon.

The Foot _was _involved, just not the whole group. Apparently a rogue group that abandoned the main body of the clan was responsible for the incident. This just made it more difficult to pinpoint the enemy.

He had to get back and explain this to his brothers. Even though this piece of information was useful he felt like he was going home empty handed, like there was more he could've learned.

But if he didn't get back soon they would begin to worry about him most likely, and his siblings already had enough to be concerned about…That and Raph would pester him about being both geographically and navigationally challenged. "I only got lost that _one_ time." Another ugly mark right up there with the 'Katana' incident it was, involving castor oil in his eyes, Mikey's skateboard, and an abandoned subway system he had never been in before.

Leo shuddered and shoved the memory into the far recesses of his mind.

He leapt, landing gracefully on a different rooftop. As he walked he noticed that a thick murky scent was beginning to saturate the air. It was a familiar aroma that he had to deal with recently.

Something was burning.

Following the scent he quickly tracked it down to a few streets down. It was a rather rundown area of New York littered with garbage and full of homeless.

In the middle of the street there was a tall building on fire.

"Is New York in a dry spell?" He wondered aloud, standing in awe of the amber glow radiating from the rising flames from the safety of his perch on the roof.

There were no fire trucks so the fire must have just started, and people were filtering out of the blaze through the small entrance door. Crammed together like lemmings they shoved and pushed to get out until the group was just a trickle of people.

Leo sighed and leaned against the building's edge looking down. He felt bad, truly he did, but there was nothing he could do no matter how much he wanted to help. As a ninja situations like this were impossible to deal with, what with so many people and such in the light. He couldn't afford to be seen.

He stood intent on continuing his journey home, but as he took one last gaze at the smoldering building there was something out of place.

There was one person standing in the alley next to the blazing building. Unlike the other residents of the structure he was not fleeing. In fact he was seemingly undisturbed by the fiery glow. His posture was calm and his white coat, which sort of looked like Donny's white lab coat, was billowing from the heat radiating off the building. He did not appear to have the intent of moving immediately from the blaze, and actually appeared to be admiring the fire.

Leo narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the bizarre person. He had a hunch on who the person was. _'He might be the arsonist that destroyed the other building. And if he is… he must have left that message and…"_ He halted his thoughts as the man began walking deeper into the alleyway. _"It doesn't matter, even if he's not. If he was responsible for at least this fire, he needs to be stopped before he hurts more people."_

Leo was not going to let him just walk away. Even if he could not rescue the people in the building or assist them in any manner he could still prevent it from happening again.

"_Silence is a true friend who never betrays,'_ Leo thought as he slipped down the edge of the building noiselessly.

Using his years of ninja skills he was able to cross the road and sneak to the other side where the blazing building was. He had to hurry since he could hear sirens in the distance approaching at high speeds. Without a sound he crept through the alleyway stalking the man.

The heat was uncomfortable. It was like standing in an oven and his skin began to perspire. He had to be careful where he stepped because most of the windows had been blown out by the fire all ready, and glass littered the ground. He wanted desperately to be done as quick as possible just in case the old building's frame decided to give out and collapse.

The lab coat wearing man suddenly stopped, causing Leo to stop as well. He scratched his ear, and then began walking again. Leo kept following before the man stopped again and looked to the side to the buildings adjacent to the burning one. It was at that time Leo realized that his shadow had been elongated by the light of the flaming building and was cast on the wall next to him for the coat wearing man to see clearly. He cursed under his breath for making such a rooky mistake.

This whole Mikey ordeal was really getting the better of him.

"Screw it."

Leo charged after the man and launched himself into the air tackling the being. Their bodies rolled for a moment before Leo rose with the man in his vice grip and a blade at his throat.

"You! Were you the one that burned down that building a few days ago?" Leo demanded. The flame's red radiance danced off of the usually cold steel of his sword giving it an unusual, ethereal, warm glow.

Leo could not see the man's expression. His face was covered completely in black cloth so not an inch of skin shown. It almost reminded him of Nobody in a way.

"Perhaps I was," the man replied seemingly unfazed by the fact a giant, talking turtle with swords had tackled him and currently had him in a headlock.

"Two girls died in that fire!" Leo yelled, slightly put off by the lack of concern the man was showing.

"I needed to leave message for your family, like I was trying to do right now... Words can only say so much. As for the girls, they aren't exactly dead as you would say." The man shrugged as much as he could given his position.

"What?" Leo asked in total confusion. He wasn't expecting that reply, or a confession so easily. And what did he mean when he said the girls weren't exactly dead? "So you _are _the one that left that message. What do you want with us? Why did you steal our weapons?"

"Whoa, whoa. You've got it all wrong. I'm not in charge I'm just a lackey; a doctor." He held his hands up defensively.

"Then who is in charge?" Leo repeated with more vehemence in his voice.

"You probably wouldn't recognize him in a crowd but he's obsessed with you guys…' specially the little one."

"What?" Leo gaped. The man took Leo's brief second of surprise to wiggle out of the turtle's grip.

He backed away quickly. "It's been a pleasure, Leonardo, but I am needed elsewhere. Don't worry though. We'll be seeing each other again real soon. It's all part of project Renaissance." With that he began to run.

Leo was almost too stunned to follow. The man knew his name? "Project Renaissance?" Suddenly his senses came back. He was about to pursue the man, but instead he had to duck as an explosion sounded off behind him. The building's boiler ruptured from the extreme heat of the buildings fire.

Glass and ruble showered down upon Leo's head. When the sound of falling debris ceased Leo dropped his arms and looked up.

Part of the building's wall had been completely obliterated. It was like looking into a doll house, seeing all of the rooms from the outside. Inside one particular room there was message burned into the wall.

"Renaissance," Leo gritted through clenched teeth, and then he read the message below it.

_Time is slipping through your fingers._

Upon hearing the screech of fire trucks and police cars coming to a halt, Leo disappeared.

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"Okay… I'm sort of starting to see a pattern here." Donny tapped his pencil thoughtfully to his chin as he looked over his small notebook. "The thing I encountered said it was called Descartes. The number on its chest was 1650, the year the real Descartes died. The robot Michelangelo fought had the number 1642. That was the year Galileo died. These things all seemed to be assigned aliases under people during the renaissance. You can tell which ones they are by the number on their chests. It's the year that person died."

"Okay. Sooooo how does that help us?" Raph questioned as he cleaned the wound on Casey's

leg. Casey, who was sitting on the floor with his pant leg rolled up (He was wearing his dirty ash covered clothes since he didn't have anything else) yelped as the gash was scrubbed rather roughly.

"Shut up you, Wuss," Raph growled, pouring antiseptic on the long wound.

"HOLY CRAP!!!" Casey almost jumped in the air but Raph latched onto his arms and pulled him down. Casey squirmed in discomfort. "That stuff feels like battery acid! ACID I tell you!!!"

"It's just some junk that Don made…"

"Hydrogen peroxide," Donny informed without looking up. He was too embroiled in the notes in his pocket notebook.

"I don't think I trust anything I can't spell." Casey narrowed his eyes.

"Then you must be one paranoid dude," Raph chuckled. "Trust me. Don's got some weirder long named crap. Like that hexiclotrigo stuff…"

"Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide," Don replied effortlessly. He was answered with silence, "Cetrimonium bromide," he elaborated looking up.

The other two continued to stare.

"CTAB?" he tried again but he was still being received by weird looks. "It's used in hair conditioning products."

"What do you need conditioner for? You've got no hair," Casey grunted as Raph yanked the bandages on his leg tighter.

"Why do you think Master Splinter's coat is so shiny?"

"Now's not the time to be admiring sensei's fur. What were ya sayin' about the Renaissance stuff?"

"Right. I was just saying that the machines are going under the code names of people during the Renaissance. And from what you told me about that news cast there appears to be a connection between these machines, the burning building and the Foot clan and hopefully Leo figured out where they are."

Leo then took that moment to make his entrance.

"Leo! We were beginning to worry. We thought you got lost or something." Raph grinned.

"Not now Raph. I think we have a problem," he started, obvious distress on his face.

"Just great. That's what a wanted hear _again_." Raph rolled his eyes.

Leo quickly paraphrased what had happened with Karai, the burning building, and the bizarre man.

"So the Foot is involved…But it's not the Foot. Just some renegades," Donny repeated Leo's words.

"And ya ran into a pyro who not only knew about us, but is connected to that group as well?" Raph folded his arms.

"Yeah. He said something about project Renaissance."

"That would actually make sense," Donny started, "Especially with the aliases the robots are going under like the one we encountered."

"You ran into one?" Leo snapped his head in Donny's direction, concern in his eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm fine." Donny quickly filled him in on what happen and Leo groaned. Things were getting horribly confusing.

"So let me get this straight," started Raph of all people. "We're dealing with a 'project Renaissance' that seems to be leavin' us breadcrumbs, the Foot and a Pyro's involved, Mikey's the target even though the could've gotten him twice already, and we still have no idea on what the hell their objectives are. So…What do we do about it?" His question was answered with silence.

"On the building there was another message," Leo began warily. "It said we're running out of time. I don't know how much longer we have to figure this mess out before something bad happens." He stared at the ground._ "Time is slipping through your fingers."_

"Well this sucks," Raph spoke what was on everyone's mind. "We have no freakin' idea what's going on _still_."

"Well, sorry guys. I really wish I could help more. If you guys need me again I'll be more then glad ta help, but I've got to get home." Casey began to pick himself up from the floor but was roughly shoved back down by Raph. "Ow! What the hell, Raph?"

"Casey, it's like 2 in the morning now and ya can barely walk let alone ride your bike with that leg. You can crash here tonight and we'll take ya home tomorrow, kay?" It was said as more of a command then a question. Casey reluctantly agreed.

"By 'we' you mean Leo and me. You stay here remember?" Don chuckled.

"You guys suck."

"We love you too, Raph."

"I think I'm going to turn in." Leo stretched. "We can't make a plan impaired by exhaustion. Everyone should get some rest so we can figure this all out in the morning."

They all, even Don a usual night owl, agreed and went to their separate rooms. All except for Casey who just dropped himself on the couch.

It wasn't until he got halfway to his room Raph realized that Donny's room was right next to Mikey's. He also remembered the fact he still hadn't told him about the door he broke (again).

"RAAAPH!"

The forementioned turtle fled to his room like a bat out of hell.

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When Mikey woke up it was noon, and he made no effort to remove himself from his warm soft bed. One of the first things he noticed was a rather big spider sitting in the corner of his ceiling, and he decided to watch it. It would clean its face with its front legs, twitch a little on its web, then remain still.

'_I really outa kill it before it gets over here. But then who would I talk to? Who would keep me company? Decisions, decisions.'_

Truth be told he was watching the arachnid as a distraction. As he was lying unmoving on his bed, he had time to think of all of the things that had happened to him including that instance of memory loss. He was too freaked out by the whole situation that seemed to appear before him. That memory lapse scared him out of his mind, "What is wrong with me?"

Why did all of this stuff have to happen to him and his family? He knew none of them were normal by society's measures, but did that mean that every other week they had to face alien invasions, ninja attacks, magical specters, beings from alternate dimensions, and deadly machines. They were like magnets for weird stuff.

The spider moved a few millimeters across the web before settling down again stone still.

"You better stay over there in your corner dude," Mikey warned. He had no problems with insects. If they didn't bother him he wouldn't bother them. He truly believed that on some level it was possible to communicate to bugs (Donny thought he had inhaled too many fumes from his acrylic paints when he attempted explaining this theory). So, he often tried projecting his thoughts to them. He disliked killing bugs but when they got in his personal bubble it was war. It was survival of the fittest anyway. _'Hmm. Maybe I can catch it in a jar and stick it in Raph's favorite cereal bowl.'_

As if catching on to the thoughts of Mikey's plot the Spider twitched.

"Michelangelo?" Mikey looked away from his spider gazing to see Master Splinter standing at the door. He was carrying a platter with tea on it and there was a parcel snug under his arm. He navigated around the clutter on Mikey's room and sat on the bed next to his youngest. He looked to where Mikey's stare had been directed in the corner to see the spider. Looking back into his sons eyes he said, "No putting spiders in your brother's things."

'_Dang it. How does he always know?'_

"Parents develop a sixth sense for these types of situations," he replied to Mikey's thoughts.

The youngest gaped.

"It is time for your tea and medicine," he continued ignoring his son's awe.

Mikey snapped his mouth closed and replaced his look of bewilderment with a twisted expression. "Do I have to?" he wrinkled his beak in disgust.

"Michelangelo, life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated," Splinter, in his sage like voice, quoted Confucius.

"Uhuh. That's just a fancy way of telling me to deal with it, isn't it?"

"Yes," came the blunt reply.

Mikey groaned.

"It's rooibos tea," Splinter spoke filling the empty cup with a reddish brown liquid. Steam wafted off the top giving off a sweat nutty scent. "It is good for the bones."

Mikey gave it a brief glance and, before he could really think about it, downed the cup and gagged. It did not taste nearly as good as it smelled. "Can't I have it with milk and sugar next time?" he moaned.

"Perhaps a bit of honey, but that's it. It is not good for you to ingest such large amounts of sugar when healing." Splinter looked at his youngest son with soft eyes.

Mikey was staring down at the empty cup, turning it at different angles to watch a small droplet of red liquid slid down the glass bottom.

Splinter sighed. "What troubles you my son?"

"Huh? Oh nothing really," he mumbled unconvincingly.

"I see." Splinter didn't buy it and Mikey knew it. The old rat did not press the matter and instead picked up the parcel he had been carrying. "Before I leave, I have been working on this for the last few days."

He handed the package to Mikey who looked at it in surprise.

"A present! Awesome, Master! Is this showing how I'm your favorite, cuz…" Michelangelo's voice left him.

Mikey could only stare wide eyed at the unwrapped objects lying in his lap. A pair of shining, steel plated nunchakus were lying there. They were each wrapped with orange cloth for easy grip.

"Master Splinter…"

"I never intended for you or Donatello to go so long with merely wooden weapons. I have been meaning to improve them for a while now but procrastinated. Your original weapons are encased inside of these. Be wary for these nunchakus are much heavier than your previous ones and will be much more difficult to control," he warned, "I must also start on Donatello's iron Bo staff soon as well…" Splinter was cut off as he was enveloped into a powerful one armed hug. He smiled and patted his son's back. "I am glad you are enthused my son," he forced the words from his crushed lungs.

"Thank you, Master!"

Splinter could see the joy shining in Michelangelo's eyes. Mikey released him from the death grip hug, held one of the nunchucks in his good hand, and did a simple figure eight swing testing out its weight. It was heavier but it wouldn't be a problem adjusting much.

"I am glad you are happy. Oh. Your brothers will be back soon."

"Huh? Where'd they go?" Mikey stopped spinning his nunchuck letting it swing slightly to a stop.

"They went to drive Mr. Jones to his home half an hour ago."

"Casey was here? What for?" He never recalled the long haired man ever being at the Lair. Then again he didn't remember ever seeing Leo or Don leave last night and didn't even know they were gone until he asked Raph. Even then his grumpy older brother hadn't elaborated on where they had went answering with a brief, 'Out.'

Mikey could almost here the Twilight Zone music playing in the background. Donny and Leo MIA while Raph, the resident rebel, was at home? Reality as he knew it must've flipped.

"Do not worry my son… It was just a brief matter your brothers needed assistance in."

Mikey had a really strange blast of Déjà vu. Didn't dream Donny (the one with the scary flamethrower) say something similar in that weird nightmare he had the other night?

He had a nagging feeling that his family was not telling him something important, and he felt it involved him in some way.

"Okay then." Mikey watched his Sensei leave through his door. He noticed that his door was back where it was supposed to be. Donny must have fixed it last night while he was asleep.

Was it him or did the hinges of his door look a little more bent then before?

Quickly, his short attention span jumped back to his newly acquired weapons. Even long after Splinter left the room he admired them. Again he swung them experimentally.

Whap

"Ow!" He dropped the metal nunchaku on his bed and his hand darted out to his now bruised right shoulder. Unfortunately, since his left arm was in a full arm cast, his arm overextended over it and he couldn't reach it.

Then to add salt to the wound right above his eye ridge where his stitches were began to itch terribly.

"No…Must not scratch! Don told me not too!" His eye jumped at the burning prickle on his eye ridge, _'Why does it have to be exactly under where the stitches are? Fate ye be a cruel mistress._' He groaned.

But his want to scratch the itch was completely overruled by his fear of a pissed off Donny. It took a lot, A LOT, to dig through the purple clad turtle's infinite patience. Yet the recent events were wearing down his sage like tolerance very rapidly, and Mikey did not want to set his usually passive brother off because he couldn't hold out on scratching a minor itch (where his stitches were inconveniently located).

Perhaps it was because Donatello rarely got mad that made it so scary. When Raph got mad Mikey blew it off as no big deal. Raph got mad all of the time. When Leo got angry Mikey was a tad bit warier but nonetheless not too worried since this brother, while his temper was a much different then Raph's, still got mad just about every day (mostly at previously mentioned hothead brother). However Donny the passive one rarely got irate, but when he did: when it rains it storms.

Yet even the threat of Don's wrath was slowly being forgotten as the itch transformed itself from an irritating tickle to a hot burn. Not a tingling burn mind you, but an, 'I'm on fire,' kind of burn like someone snuffed out a cigarette under the skin of his eye ridge.

As the burning sensation increased the woozier he felt. A dizzy wave began to wash over Mikey. He stopped moving as the room began to spin. He closed his eyes and put his arm to his forehead.

"It'll pass. Just like the other time in the kitchen, it'll pass." His breath hitched as nausea passed through him. He felt like he had just gotten off a roller coaster he had ridden consecutively 12 times in a row. "It'll pass."

The wave did not pass. It got worse.

His eyes were open yet he could not see at all. It was like being blind. His balance was completely thrown off, and the slightest of movements he made, made him stumble. Then, slowly but surely, he could feel his conscious trickling away. It wasn't like sleep where the line between awareness and slumber was blurred to the point it was impossible to tell when the line was crossed from one to the other. It was more like going unconscious; being able to feel yourself drifting off and knowing it was happening as it occurred.

He had no control over stopping it, and total darkness came over him. Right before he completely passed out he could hear master Splinter call to him from the living room.

"My son! Is everything all right?"

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Raph was irritated. Donny and Leo left him in the Lair, again, to take Casey and his bike back to his place.

"Why did I make that stupid promise?" He growled.

His home was dead silent. It was noon, and for the past thirty minutes he had been pummeling his punching bag. However, he quickly tired of that and decided to go check on Mikey. He saw Splinter walk to his brother's room carrying morning tea so he figured the youngest was probably awake.

Speaking of Splinter he hadn't seen him since then.

Shrugging he continued down the hall. A soft tapping noise appeared behind him.

"Master Splinter?" He questioned, but before he could turn around he felt a soft jab to the back of his neck. "What the…!" Raph barely had time to speak those words before total darkness came over him.

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Everything was dark and fuzzy. There were voices but they sounded far off in the distance. Why couldn't they just go away?

He wanted to sleep.

That wasn't going to happen he realized as a strong powerful stench wafted into his nostrils.

"What the-? Don!" Raph sat up immediately and slapped away the hand that was holding the offending substance. "Mind telling me why yer shoving smelling salts up my nose?"

There was a sigh of relief. "Leo, He came to."

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"Good, but Master Splinter's not getting up still. The salts aren't working," Leo said this with apprehension in his voice. Raph looked to his blue masked sibling and saw him waving the salts underneath his unconscious master's nose.

"Master Splinter!" Raph cried crawling to his fallen master.

The old rat was lying on the floor unconscious. Leo was on his knees propping the old rat's his head gently. Raph scrutinized his condition. There were no visible signs of injury.

"What happened?" Raph asked.

"You tell us. We've only been back all about three minutes. We found you in the hallway and Splinter was right here knocked out cold," Don mumbled crawling next to Raph.

"I don't remember. How long was I out?" Raph groaned trying to come up with some memory.

"Dunno. It's about 1:30 now."

"AN HOUR!" Raph gasped. "I was out that long!? Where were you two!?"

"You try getting through New York traffic during the middle of the day. We probably moved about three feet in 20 minutes." Leo glared as he attempted rousing his sensei with the strong smelling salts. Realizing it wasn't working, he sighed and let the satchel drop to the floor.

"Jeez, I can't believe this." Raph looked down to Master Splinter,."What's wrong with 'im?" He asked confusedly as he stared at their comatose Sensei. He was not the medical expert of the family.

Don kneeled to Splinter's side as well and observed him. The fur right in the middle of his left eyebrow and below the left eye was mussed.

"A pressure point." Don observed a small indents in their masters fur. He looked to Leo to elaborate. His elder brother was much better versed in the chi flow system and vital points.

Seeing the spot Don indicated Leo grimaced, but at least he could do something now. Pressure points were a part of martial arts, and that was his specialty.

"The point used was Seidon." He began, "It's normally executed with hiraken, palm heel and strike with the knee; Nukite, elbow; or with Isshiken, the one finger fist. Luckily, it's not one of deadlier points and is generally only used to cause unconsciousness. It doesn't look like it was a strong enough strike to cause a nervous disorder because of irritation to the cerebrum. Master Splinter should be awake again in a few hours, half a day at worst probably with a small headache."

Raph stared at his brother. "You've been hangin' around Donny way too often."

Leo ignored him. "Actually, Seidon is one of the 14 initial pressure points Master taught us when we were younger. Remember? He showed it to us so we could counter anyone who fights using jujutsu."

"Sorry ta interrupt your trip down memory lane, but would ya mind tellin' me, how the hell someone get directly in front of Splinta, and knocked him out like that?" Raph was dumbstruck on how someone could get the drop on their seemingly omnipotent Father figure.

"You were hit by a pressure point too, but at least we were able to wake you back up," Don chipped in.

"I have no idea who did this, but they are going to pay," Leo answered Raph's initial question and picked his sensei up, setting him softly on the couch. "This isn't making any sense."

"Who could've done this? I mean it's hard enough to pull a fast one on Raph," this was responded with an indignant 'hey!', "but Master Splinter is way too skilled to have been snuck up on and taken down so easily. There aren't even any signs of conflict." Don's words were true. The Lair was exactly the way the left it and there was not a single injury, defensive or offensive, on either Splinter or Raphael. He put some thought into the issue trying to figure out what had happened, but suddenly his mind took a completely different route. Donatello's face paled visibly.

Both Raph and Leo caught this.

"Hey. What's wrong there, Donny?" Raph asked with trepidation.

"Where's Mikey?" Donny barely choked out.

The three of them froze and looked to each other with dread written across their faces.

Raphael bolted toward Mikey's room before his brothers even began to comprehend what was happening.

For the third time in a short while Raph rammed himself into Mikey's door and snapped it of its already mutilated hinges.

The second he entered the room he felt his heart jump.

Mikey was not there.

Raph stood in complete shock not knowing how to react. His hands began to shake and his breathing got increasingly heavier.

"No…NO!" He looked frantically around the room in fear searching for any trace of the youngest. "Mikey! Mikey, where are ya!? Mikey?"

Something caught his eye that he had missed in his blind panic. He tripped across Mikey's disorderly floor to the bed to get a better look at the jagged letters scratched into the wall.

It was one word. Only one word yet it said so much.

'_Renaissance.'_

Raph's heart completely stopped upon seeing that word. For the moment he laid his eyes on it he knew what the implied message was.

His little brother was gone.

He stared at the words in blankly almost in a detached manner. Nothing around him was computing and his mind couldn't grasp what was happening. There was the sound of Donatello and Leo calling after him, running to Michelangelo's room as well, but their voices were muffled and fuzzy, blocked out by a barrier of denial Raph created around himself.

Suddenly after a delayed reaction the realization of what happened slammed into Raph cracking the barrier, and he was crushed by the weight of that one word.

Raph dropped to his knees and gave an anguished scream, slamming his fists into the ground in frustration.

His precious baby brother was gone.

He heard Don skid to a stop in front of the door not daring to cross through as if a force field was repelling him.

Don was silent and taken aback upon seeing Mikey's bare room and the message. His mind figured out what had happened much faster than Raph's had. He opened his mouth to speak, shut it, and then opened again. Yet no sound came. He shakily wandered into the room like he was treading on a minefield. "They… They…" Donny, for once, couldn't find the words.

Leo stood at the doorway where Donny had once stood. He felt like someone stabbed a knife to his heart and twisted it with malevolence. He had failed. He had failed to protect his family. _'They took him.' _His mind finished Don's train of thought.

_Time is slipping through your fingers_ the message had read, but he didn't realize they had as little as hours to act before something occurred.

Panic froze Leo in place causing him to breathe harshly as he tried to calm down the wild thumping of his heart. He tried everything in his power to regain his deteriorating composure but was failing. He needed to be strong. He was the leader, and it was as Master Splinter had once told him

"_True leaders are first to envision the plan, and empower the team for action. By the strength of the leader's commitment, the power of the team is unleashed," _The old Rat's voice echoed in his mind. His sensei was right. He couldn't let fear cripple him in a terrible moment or all of his brothers would be lost unable to take action.

"Those bastards!" Raph screamed rising from his knees. "They took him! Right under our noses they took him! How the hell did we let this happen? How did _I_ let this happen? We were supposed to watch him! This is exactly what we were trying to prevent!"

Leo cringed. Where had he heard _those_ words before?

"Raph, please calm down," Leonardo attempted silencing his brother. He was trying to formulate a plan, attempting to find somewhere to begin so they could find the missing youngest. However, none of his thoughts were making coherent chains, and Raph's yelling was not helping.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN! Leo, this is the second time he's gone missing! Those whack bags were after him and now they've got him! They kidnapped him and you want me to calm down!?!"

"Raph, stop. We need to be rational," Don tried pacifying his brother, but Raphael instead simply redirected his fury to the nonviolent turtle.

"SHUT UP, DON! We almost lost him once and I sure as hell ain't letting it happen again!"

"Raph, you're not helping!" Leo screamed at his enraged sibling. "Your shouting is making it impossible to think, so could you, for five damn minutes, shut up and let me come up with a plan!"

"A plan," he scoffed. With his voice bitter and low he started again, "With what!? We have no idea where he freakin' is, when or how he was taken and you can come up with a plan with that?"

"Guys, we can't let our emotions get in the way of logical thinking! We're just wasting time here arguing!" Don attempted being the voice of reason.

"**Purple is right. We should do all we can to do away with emotion and put reason in its place**," a sweet metallic voice rang from behind.

Almost instantaneously after the voice spoke Leo's swords, Raph's Sais, and Donatello's Bo were all aimed at the entrance to Mikey's room. Someone was standing there.

It was a girl, a very little girl who was probably only 8 years of age. She was wearing all black and her face was covered by a featureless porcelain mask. Her hair was _blue_ (it must have been truly black) and let down her back like a sheet of silk.

"It's one of them," Raph spat with fury upon seeing the number '1536' printed across her long sleeved shirt. Raph began to walk forward menacingly with every intent on destroying the small person ahead of them, but was stopped as both of his arms were grabbed by Don and Leo respectively.

"Let. Me. Go. That thing's no kid! It's one a' those things that took Mikey and I'm gonna turn it into scrap metal! This thing is probably the one that hurt Masta Splinta! " he roared attempting to pull free of his siblings' iron grips.

"Raph stop. It's a lead."

Raph halted at Leo's whispered command.

If it was one of those things, one of project Renaissance's pieces, then it could lead them to their little brother. Raph reluctantly relaxed and dropped his hands to his sides. He looked down unable to turn his gaze to the being in the doorway or he would probably just go and attack it.

Leo stared at the figure with reservation. There was an odd feeling at the pit of his stomach caused by the "child", but he wasn't exactly sure on what it was yet. Disgust? Anger? Or…

Pity?

"**My name is Erasmus**," It introduced politely. It sounded almost like a little girl but had an unnatural sonorous ring in its voice that made it sound like dual vocal chords were being used.

'_That helps confirm my theory,_' Don figured. 1536 was the year Erasmus died.

"**I am sorry, but I am not the one that harmed your rat. I am simply a guide sent here to take you to my master**," the bubbly voice spoke. "**The Renaissant** **went ahead already, but Master is ready for the rest of you now**."

"Renaissant?" Leo parroted. "Wait, you don't mean…"

"**We are all pieces of project renaissance but he is the most important one. Come, we must go! Day light is burning**. **Follow me and we will be where we need to be**," the 'child' began running down to the entrance of the Lair.

The three brothers gave each other hesitant glances but Leo mouthed, 'We have no other choice.' And they walked out to the main room where the girl was waiting.

The large spider that was sitting in the corner of Mikey's room watched them unmoving as they left. It had been there the whole time. It knew everything that had happened. If only there was a way to communicate with it.

"What about Splinter?" Donny hissed. Leo looked over his shoulder at the couch were they had set the old ninja master. For a moment his heart wrenched, but then he thought of another thing his Sensei had said.

'_True leaders know that personal matters are not to get in the way of good judgment_,' that was what Splinter had told him. He couldn't let his heart be torn to two places. He had to be decisive and prioritize for the group's sake over the individual. While he was worried about his unconscious sensei, finding Mikey safe was the main concern at the moment, and he knew that Splinter would agree with him. Also, Splinter was not in a particularly bad condition so...

"He'll be fine for now. Finding Mikey is our main objective," he whispered back.

Donny gave a hesitant nod and Raph grunted in agreement. Looking back one last time they all walked forward to greet the bizarre masked kid who was balancing on her tippy-toes rocking back and forth in a childlike manner.

"**We must hurry. Let us go**." With a burst of speed the child darted off. The three turtles were thrown off in surprise for a brief moment before they took off after the girl.

For nearly a half hour they chased after her. They had to run as fast as they could, nearly twice their usual pace, but it was still difficult keeping up with the mechanically built being. Also the fact that it was broad daylight made it difficult since they could not afford to be seen.

They felt oddly naked without the mask of night. Had it been any other situation then what it was now they wouldn't take such a risk.

But their little brother was at risk and that was priority.

Erasmus ran, weaved, and cart wheeled around obstacles with a liquid grace. When something tall obstructed her path she would simply jump over it like a flea. Even the three trained ninjas had some difficulty scaling the walls she did while clocking the same pace that the small guide held.

"**We are here!"** she chirped happily coming to a sudden stop.

Leo halted instantly almost causing both of his younger brothers to slam into him.

"What the hell is wrong with that thing?" Raph wheezed trying to get his breathing under control. "We've been doing these run things for nearly our whole lives and we're beat. Then that thing barely looks like it moved at all!" he began to take a steps forward and steps back to cool his heart rate down and keep it from going into shock.

"She's a machine, Raph." Don gulped in a deep breath of air before continuing, "She doesn't have lungs and her muscles are mechanical. She can't get fatigue and her muscles don't release lactic acid because she has none," he elaborated.

Raph stopped his movement and looked up to see where they ended up arriving.

"Hey. Isn't this… This was a hospital!" Don said appalled.

It was a hospital that had been abandoned several years ago due to the unsafe framework and shoddy construction. It was deemed a hazard, and was scheduled for destruction at some point so it could be rebuilt safer, but the project kept getting put back. Over time, all of the windows were blown out, the once white walls both outside and in were weather worn and had various water and rust stains, and graffiti decorated the old white brick facade. The floors and walls were bubbled and distorted from water damage.

"**Follow me."** Erasmus beckoned to the brothers before running through the broken doors of the building. "**We must go below."**

As she disappeared from sight Raph turned to his brothers. "Guys. What're the odds that this is a trap?" he asked bluntly.

"Mostly likely very high," Don sighed. "We don't have much of a choice though now do we?"

"Whatever. The second we find Mikey we're burnin' this place to the ground, got it?"

"**Hurry**!"her voice range from the depths of the shadowy building. The three turtles followed reluctantly. Only their drive to find their little brother had them going into the darkness that made them feel such unease.

They walked down the long, dusty, dark hall and reached rusted metal doors, an elevator.

The girl pressed the button opening the door then indicated they were to enter. Grudgingly they did. She however did not follow.

"**This is as far as I am to take you**." Erasmus said as she stepped back out the sliding doors, "**When you reach the bottom, just** **keep going straight. The doctor is waiting for you.**"

"Erasmus was it," Leo started. Both of his brothers looked back at him. He had barely spoken the entire trip. "I have a question."

"**Yes**?"

"Which one are you: Angelica Rasmussen or Michelle Creech?"

Don's and Raph's mouths dropped and they stared dumbfounded at Erasmus.

Without skipping a beat the girl grasped her porcelain mask with both hands and removed it.

Her face was strange. It looked somewhat normal, but the sides did not match up perfectly. The left side of her face was a tad bit darker, the cheek was slightly higher, and instead of having a blue eye like the right side it had a brown one. The child gave an awkward smile with her half full salmon pink half thin mulberry colored lips and said, "**I'm both**."

The doors slid shut blocking her from view and suddenly the three turtles were alone.

"Leo. How did you…" Raph was at a loss for words at the horror that had been before them.

"The _doctor_ I met earlier will probably explain it." Leo scowled. The man had been wearing a lab coat. It had to have been him. "I have a feeling he's the one who made those girls like that and possibly has been making these Renaissance machines."

"You know," Don started, "It's sad to think that somewhere in the world there is the worst doctor in the world. It's even more unfortunate to think that someone probably has an appointment with him tomorrow."

"I think that appointment belongs to us," Raph grimaced.

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(A.N.: Seidon is a real pressure point so please don't try it at home...Or anywhere for that matter.)

Another chapter down! Only a few more to go.

Mikey will have a bigger appearance in the next chapter so no worries.

Reviews are loved! Constructive criticism appreciated. Flames used for Mellows.


	8. Law 8

Really sorry about the long wait. There was the trip, and then the jet lag, and then I had relatives come over the next day and they stayed for two weeks and…Meh, I have no excuse.

Disclaimer: I don't own. Plot and plot elements are mine though.

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**Murphy's Eighth Law: If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.**

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When Mikey came to, he noticed three things.

The first thing he noticed was that his stomach really hurt. All logical deduction would point the pain to his brother's latest attempts at feeding him (charcoal is to grill on, not to be eaten). When the room stopped spinning, he'd have to explain to them that the smoke alarm going off is not a good measure to determine when dinner is done. Also, the strong stench of antiseptics and disinfectants was overpowering.

As he cracked his eyes open, the second thing he noticed was that he was not in the Lair. He was in a small sickeningly bright room.

The last thing he realized was that his left arm felt unusually numb. It was similar to the feeling he often got when he was asleep at night and rolled over one of his arms, cutting the circulation off. When he woke it felt like the limb wasn't there because he had blocked the nerve endings and it felt like rubber.

This was a perfectly logical reason for Mikey to go into an episode of spazzy panickyness.

He was laying on a metal table and is left arm was in a strange blue jelly. The cast was missing and there seemed to be a thin intricate metal film over his arm that had patterns similar to what you find on a microchip. They were held down in place by several bands that appeared to be made out of a flexible metal. Several wires and needles were hooked up to various parts of the bizarre contraption. His face paled at the needles and he had to look away.

Due to the numbness, he didn't realize he was able to flex his once shattered wrist and twitch his fingers with out pain.

However, that was not the concern at the moment. He slowly sat up and pulled his arm out of the jelly like substance, wrinkling his beak and disgust from the overpowering chemical smell it let off, and systematically yanked all of the wires and needles out of his arm. He was somewhat glad he couldn't feel his arm because he didn't have to feel the pinching of the needles as they were pulled out of his skin.

Then he attempted yanking the metal bands and strange mechanical film off his left arm as delicately as possible only to be unsuccessful.

After a, "Screw it. I'll get Donny to get this thing off," he scanned the room and located a wooden door that stood out like a cherry in a bowl of green grapes against the immaculate white wall.

To his surprise, when he turned the knob, the door was unlocked.

After he cautiously walked out, Mikey looked up and gave a girly shriek.

He was now in a large hall that must have been only slightly shorter than two stories tall, and the hall was lined with several mechanical beings hooked up to the walls with chords and wires.

What was truly terrifying though was that even though some of them looked like horrific distorted monsters, the majority of them looked like broken, torn apart human beings. Like people that had had been infused with machinery, or machinery that had been infused with organs, skin and hair to make them seem more human.

They were Frankenstein experiments gone wrong.

"Let's see. I'm in a hall. Not in the Lair. Don't know how I got here…ARGH! I'VE BEEN TURTLENAPPED! WhatdoIdo? WhatdoIdo?"

"**You were not taken**," a scratchy broken voice rang out. Mikey's head snapped up to see one of the half finished mechanical beings looking at him, "**We have observed you were the one who brought yourself here**."

It was one of the machines hooked up to the wall. It had a broad barrel chest, with the number 1614 in white on it, and powerful jagged arms. Half of its face was covered by a black mask, but the other half was bare revealing raw wires and clockwork. It was incomplete however. It had no legs. Wires, hoses, and tubes were spilling from its middle like loose entrails. The platform it was suspended above had the name 'El Greco' engraved in it.

Mikey stared for a moment before another girly scream. His hands dove for his steel plated nunchucks only to find they were not there. None of his gear was on him. He patted himself down discovering there was an absence of any of his pads_, 'Ah shell.'_ He dropped himself into a ready stance, somewhat prepared for combat.

After several seconds, he realized that none of the grizzly, mechanical beings were attacking him. None of them even seemed to even be on except for the mechanized torso that spoke.

"**We have not been order to harm you**," the legless creature that spoke previously, monotoned.

"Ok. That's good I guess," Mike inched slowly away in the opposite direction. Then he began to think of the statement the incomplete machine had said before, "Hey! Wait a minute. You're telling me I came here by myself?"

The machine nodded.

"As in, I actually walked here myself?"

Another nod.

Pause.

"No I didn't." Mikey stated.

"**Yes you did**."

"Nope. Impossible. I'm pretty sure I'd remember transporting myself from my room to halfway across the city. One of you guys probably knocked me out and dragged me here."

"**You came here on your own**."

"No I didn't."

"**Yes**."

"No."

"**You did**."

"Seriously dude. I did not."

"**Not of your own accord, but you transported yourself here."**

"I don't even know where 'here' is. So, nope. I did not come here."

"**You did, foolish one."** The robot countered. Had it been alive it probably would've gotten irritated.

"Whatever, dude. I need to get out of here." Mikey ignored Greco's dismissal of him and began walking down the hall. The half masked face of the robot slowly followed him as he got further ahead in the distance.

Mikey continued down the hall trying to keep as close to the center of the path as possible. He wanted to be as far away from the scary machines as he could be which was difficult since they were on either side.

He reached the end of the wall coming to a dead end. He groaned, "I went the wrong way!" looking up, he observed the giant obstruction.

It was a wall that looked like a giant cork board. Hundreds of papers were tacked on to it in a precise and orderly fashion, like a masterfully sewn quilt. Each paper had a title in bold (most of them were funny sounding names), two dates (one a date of birth and the other a date of death), and a small paragraph of information.

"Nicolo Machiavelli, Dante Alighieri, Michelozzo Michelozzi, Domenico Ghirlandaio… Roger _Bacon_? Geeze, what were these guys parents thinking when they named their kids?" Mikey read through a few of the papers.

In browsing the papers, one in particular caught his eye in the upper left corner "Donatello? Hmm," With curiosity getting the better of him, he began to read, "1386-1466. He was an Italian sculptor from the early renaissance. He was interested in the ideas of humanism and nature. While lesser known than some great artist of that time, he lead the way for other artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, and Michelangelo Buonarroti… Splinter should have reasearched our names better. This sounds like more like Leo." With his interest perked he decided to scour the board to see if the rest of their names were there. Sure enough, after searching the wall, he located them.

"Raphael Sanzio, 1483-1520, was an Italian master painter and architect during the High Renaissance, blah, blah, blah… He often painted angels and Madonnas and was celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings. Many thought his subject matter was fitting coming from someone whose name meant… 'Heal God'?" Mikey had to pause to let that sink in, "Raphael means 'Heal God'? Should mean _Hell_ God with his temper..." he thought thinking back to his own brother.

"Lessee: Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452-1519 . Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He was an artist, a man of science, an inventor… Yup this sounds nothing like my lovable, unimaginative, and technilogically chalenged bro. Splinter really got our names mixed up."

Then he found his own name.

On the paper was written Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (man was that a mouthful. He already thought his name was obsurdly long as it was), but this paper was different from the others. Instead of being white it was a bold red color standing out against the wall. It also was much scarcer in information then any of the others had. There seemed to be only five breif lines of information on it.

"One of the most renowned of the rennaissance." Below that line appeared to be a breif poem, " A light in the hearts of many he touched. A star in the skies of scholars he was

And we of the rennaissance give our ode, to the departed painter, Michelangelo," The word 'departed' was circled by what looked to be black sharpie, and at the bottom of the page was the word 'fukushu'messily scratched on. Mikey had to wrack his brain for the meaning of the Japanese word. He really should have paid more attention during those language lessons.

Suddenly, something clicked. Fukushu meant vengeance in Japanese.

"Oh, hell," He was officially freaked out now. Quickly turning on his heal he made a bealine for the oposite direction but was halted. There were five foot soldiers standing there impeding his way. Quickly and systematically, they surrounded him.

The one in front of him pointed an accusing finger in his direction and spoke.

"You are not to be going anywhere…" Wham.

Michelangelo knocked the foot soldier out with a powerful sidekick to the stomach.

The second his leg landed, he pushed of the ground with his foot and struck the ninja behind him with a complete 360 rotation muwashigedi. After he landed in a front stance he launched two punches to the gut of the man in front of him. As another enemy went to attack him, he dropped back into nekoashidachi, cat stance, knife handed the man in the clavicle, blocked the remaining soldier's upcoming attack, blocked again, and then trapped his hand. He pulled the enemies arm up, and executed an under hand knife strike to the ribs successfully winding him enough to knock him out…

"Hey that was exactly like Ryu San! It looks like katas are good for something," he thought happily as he hopped over the unconscious bodies of the foot ninjas and headed into the opostite direction.

However, before he got very far he skidded to a halt and stared at his left arm. Several of the moves he had just used required _both_ hands. His left arm was broken wasn't it? He hesitantly lefted his arm and bent it experimentally. To his surprise his arm was functioning properly like it hadn't been mangled all that time ago.

Maybe that jelly and the computer chip looking film on his arm had something to do with it…

"Neat. Go with the flow I guess," Mikey decided questions would be asked later.

After a while of traveling, at the other end of the hall he found another door. The moment after he entered it, he tripped.

"OW!" he pulled himself up. There was a short set of stairs in the dark room, "Who ever built this place was stupid." He stood up an navigated himself to a wall in the dark. He patted down the surface searching for a light switch of somesort and found a lever. He pulled it and large florescent lights slowly flickered to life, illuminating the room and revealing it's contents.

Or rather content.

"Woah." Was the only word Mikey could come up with, with what he saw in the corner.

It was like a big green lava lamp. But instead of wax floating inside there was a person.

It was a male that looked to be perhaps only to be in his early 20's. The man had numerous scars, but there were large wounds that did not seem like they were healing at all. A few in particular stood out such as the two diagnol slashes streaking from the mans shoulder down to the opposite sides hip, three violent scratches on the mans leg, and a rather big hole in the beings throat, all of which had monstrous stiches keeping them closed. Every once and a while, a bubble of red would lift off from the gashes and disolve into the green fluid. Tubes and needles were attached, and stuck into the mans gray skin. One of the persons eyes was stitched closed, the socket looked sunken in almost, while one was partially open. It was shadowed and lifeless. Infact, there did not appear to be any life in the person at all. He didn't even have a respiratory unit or breathing mask in the liquid to sign he was even breathing.

Michelangelo was by no means the brightest crayon in the box, but he was intelegent enough to figure out why the body appeared the way it did.

It was a corpse.

Mikey almost gagged as realization sunk in.

He had seen dead things before. For instance, there was the gold fish he had owned when he was 9 (may Sir Bubbles Carson Sub-Sub rest in peace), there were the rats and mice they would come across in the sewer while scavenging that fell varius unfortunate fates, and, while being much more morbid than the previous two, there were even the Foot ninjas that they were forced to kill to stay alive. But the enemies they killed were always masked, faceless beings that they never stuck around long enough to see what happened to.

Seeing a dead body exposed, and floating in the cylandir like a lone pickle in a jar was unerving. As if the freaky mechanical monstrosities didn't disturb him enough already-this was definitely the icing on the cake.

What scared him more was the bizarre familiarity of the person. He was positive he had never seen the man before in his life, but still… Something about the marks on the corpses body made him uneasy.

Dangit, why did he have to be so attentive to detail? There were somethings he'd prefer not noticing things. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

He had to get out of here.

He whirled around and, in shock, jumped a height that would shame Shaq from being surprised to find that a masked armored ninja was standing right behind him.

Dangit! He really needed to pay more attention in these kinds of situations! It was always feast or famine with him. Either he'd be really focused on something or not at all.

A few more ninja filtered into the room, only three, and got on either side of the armored elite.

Mikey took a few steps backward, readied himself in a defensive stance and narrowed his eyes in recognition of the ninja before him. "Hey. Hey! It's you!" Mikey pointed an accusing finger at the armored man, "You're the one who stole our stuff."

The man ignored him and whispered to one of the men in Japanese. The soldier nodded and waved his hand signalling the others. They all acknowledged the gesture and began running down the hall in the opposite direction of the turtle leaving Mikey and the foot Elite alone.

"Heeeey," Mikey whined. Why did he feel like he was up to bat and the opposite team was moving in for his hit? Well, if this guy wasn't going to take him seriously, then he would give him something to worry about.

He uncoiled out of his stance and let loose a fury of attacks.

"We are not to harm you." The ninja stated firmly as he blocked, but Mikey kept on the onslought of attacks.

"Good for you, but that has nothing to do with me!" Mikey recoiled his leg into a chamber and cresent kicked the man. The elite grabbed his foot and roughly twisted it to the left which, in result, turned his whole leg over and caused him to loose his balance.

Mikey stumbled back slightly but gained his composure and set himself into a side stance, calculating his next string of moves.

"You are not supposed to be in here," the man added gruffly avoiding a high side kick aimed at his head. "I do not have time for this," the man jumped back. He pulled up his shirt and spoke into a tiny microphone that was latched onto the coller. Mikey couldn't hear what he said, but he figured it was probably bad news (for him at least).

That's when he was overwhelmed by a dizzy wave again. It hit him harder and faster than the previous two, and he was floored instantly. He dropped to all fours and looked down, unable to look up at the swirling lights and shadows that made his stomach turn. It felt like his insides were rolling over each other, wanting to force their selves out of his gut. His vision blackened and simultaniously his other sense followed suite.

Before his mind went to oblivion, he heard the thick smokey voice of the Elite ninja speak.

"This will be one of the last times you will ever wake, kame."

00000

Else where.

"Uh, Raph…"

"Yeah?"

"There's a spider on your shell."

Silence.

"HOLY CRAP! Get it off!" Raph swung himself into the yellow, bubbly, water damaged wall in attempt to squish the eight legged critter. All he managed to do was knock it off his shell and the small arachnid skittered away down the hall, "I freakin hate this place!" While Mikey had the 'you don't bother me, I don't bother you.' philosophy, Raph had zero tolerance for anything that had more than four legs. He hated bugs.

"It was just a spider Raph. You're like what, 1000 times bigger than it is. I never took you for the arachnophobic type." Leo nudged his brother with his elbow jokingly. Raph swatted it away.

"Actually, it would be Entomophobia: Fear of all bugs or buglike things," Donny joined in, "Don't worry Raphie. We'll protect you from the big scary insects." He and Leo chuckled.

With a, "You guys suck." From Raph, they continued down the hall.

They had been walking down the hallway for several minutes. The cooridor was in slightly better condition than the above level. Water damage still leaked down from the ceiling and down the walls, and there were several cobwebs. The only light was from the dim flickering lightbulbs that hung from the ceiling every dozen feet or so.

"Huh. It's following us," the two looked over at Donny who was staring over his shoulder at the spider in fascination.

"What are ya talkin about? It's a bug." Raph stared at the eight legged critter then shuddered and turned away.

"Arachnid," Donny corrected, "And look. Keep walking." They took a few steps and sure enough it followed. When the stopped it halted, "This is bizarre," Donatello walked toward the bug and then got on all fours to observe the arachnid closer. The spider took a minor step back before walking toward Donny in a seemingly curious matter.

"Real smart there, Don. Arms down, face exposed. What if it's one a' those jumpin' kinds?"

"Raph's right," Leo was uneasy, "Spiders are poisonous. What if it's a brown recluse or something?"

"Then if I got bitten by it, the poison would cause minor necrosis. Or, if I was unlucky it would possibly cause more severe symptoms such as hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation," he said in a matter-o-factly tone. "But it's not a Brown recluse."

"How can you be sure?" Leo questioned.

"Well, for starters, it's bright yellow."

Leo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"It looks like it's a Chiracanthium mildei; or rather know as either the yellow sac or the black foot spider. It's thought that there venom might cause a localized necrosis but all of the confirmed yellow sac spider bites reveal no evidence of necrosis so I wouldn't be worried of getting bitten." The golden spider stared up at Donny with it's big onyx eyes (all six of them). It wallked a bit closer and stared in a relaxed state, "It's not showing any signs of defense or offense. Generally, this is when fight or flight kicks in but it doesn't look at all disturbed or worried." Donny reached for a small glass vile that he had with him (where he was keeping it no one knew)

"Can you just please put that thing outa my misery?" Raph moaned as his back tingled in unease, "We don't have time for this! We need to find Mikey."

"Gotcha," Donny trapped the spider in the small glass jar. It at first backed up into the glass and then settled climbing up one of the walls.

"Donny, now is not the time to be collecting samples." Leo exasperated.

"Hang on." He looked closely at the spider and his jaw dropped, "I don't believe this."

"What?" Raph and Leo simultaneously questioned.

"There's a camera on it!"

"You can't be serious!" Leo crowded next to Donny. Sure enough, while being extremely faint, there was a miniscule red light blinking on the yellow spiders back. It was a mini camera.

"This is probably how they've been keeping tabs on us with out us noticing." Donny grimaced.

"That's an unreliable method. You can't train spiders. What kept it from wandering off?" Leo wondered.

"I have no idea. It's not mechanical but it's not acting on normal instincts. It's almost acting intelligent even… Or being controlled by something."

"Very good Donatello!" The three turtles whirled around.

Standing there was a man coated completely in black wearing a lab coat. Leo narrowed his eyes.

It was the man from before.

Raph saw his older brother tense up at the sight of the man, as did Donny.

"You were the one that lit those fires and hurt Angelica and Michelle." It was more of a statement then a question that left Leo's lips.

"You may call me Dr. X," the man said giving a mock European styled Bow, bending on one knee and sweeping his hand in a welcoming manner.

"That's a bit of an odd name." Don spoke coldly.

"I think it's rather fitting. X: the unknown variable. After all names are simply tools for convenience."

"Names are more then tools for convenience. Names are the first things a person can ever truly own." Leo growled.

"I wouldn't care if ya were the Queen of England," Raph's Sais were out and ready.

"No weapons Raph. We need him to talk." Leo halted his brother while fighting his own urge to lash out at the cloth covered man before them.

"Well that's convenient! I came here to talk to you all anyway," was the chipper reply. Raph scowled at the cheery disposition the masked man had. He walked to them with his hands in his pockets. There was not an ounce of fear or trepidation in his step, "I have been ordered by my boss-man guy to inform you all that you have been snared into his web. Since it's too late for you all to back down, considering how far in the game you've all gotten yourselves caught into, I am here to explain your situation."

Raph violently grabbed the man by the collar and yanked him forward enraged. He was both distraught and majorly pissed off; two emotions that did not go together in Raph.

"Where the hell is my brother?" His voice dripped with venom.

"That's not exactly what I'm supposed to tell you," there was mirth in X's voice, "You're going to see him really soon anyway."

Raph could almost feel that the man grinning beneath his mask and it sickened him. He could tell that to this X character, his youngest's siblings life was just another disposable piece in a game of chess. Angered, he ripped the cloth on the man's face off, intent on wiping that grin from his face regardless of what Leo had said, but instead reeled slightly in surprise at the sight.

The man's face was burned horribly beyond recognition. The skin was an angry red, leathery, and disfigured with hard blisters and deep groves beyond anything he had ever seen. There was no hair on his head, eyebrows, or face and his eyes were barely visible under the swollen, bulky, scarred skin. But from what was visible he could see the man had silvery blue eyes, so pale that the irises barely stood out against the whites.

"My, that was rather rude," X chuckled.

"What the hell happened to ya?" Raph said in disbelief and disgust.

"I got burned when I was a kid," He shrugged as if he was explaining how he got a paper cut.

"But you were the one who burned down those buildings! How could you possibly work with fire after…that happened to you," Don asked in confusion, "Wouldn't you be afraid of it after…?"

"On the contrary, being burned did the opposite. I absolutely adore fire," He grinned. His crackled, charred lipless mouth stretched past rows of porcelain white teeth, "When I was young, I was reckless and consumed by the feelings of the immortalities of youth. Then, one day, I got careless and ended up burning my home down with me still in it. The results are as you can see."

"That makes no sense. It's human nature to fear what causes pain."

"Fire put me in my place. I began to admire it for that, for its power, and for how easily it destroys. It doesn't care if you're rich or poor, if you're young or old. None is granted mercy in its path. I became a bit of a, how would you say it, pyromaniac after that." He sighed wistfully, "Such a beautiful way to die to be enveloped in the golden and crimson light."

"I didn't come here for your life story you whackbag. Where the hell is my little brother?"

"My little Renaissant you mean? Ah, what a sweet child he is." Raph gave him a rather rough shake and pulled the man up so there faces were a breath away from each other.

"Don't you dare refer to _my_ little brother as _yours _you sicko," The burnt man could only smile widely.

"I can not believe any of this actually worked in all honesty. It seemed improbable but it happened anyway. You all took the bait from the beginning." Raph looked like he severely wanted to hit the man but Leo placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

"What do you mean taken the bait from the beginning?" Leo asked.

"The bait. Your weapons."

"Our weapons?" Raph asked in surprise.

"Well yeah. We didn't actually need them for anything except for luring the Renaissant in. He always was the most observant of you four from what we gathered." X sent a brief glance to the spider in the jar Donny was holding, "That's why he was the only one to notice the address we left."

"You planned that to be Mikey?!" Don shrieked.

"Yup. Actually I didn't plan anything. That was my boss man. I'm just the one that helped put things in motion. I mean the odds it would be him alone was like one in a million but Boss man pegged down all of your personalities down."

"What was the purpose of that? Were you trying to kill him?" Leo demanded.

"Nope. We were trying to scare you three," He pointed at the turtles. They looked shock, "Haven't any of you ever heard the phrase 'you don't know what you have until it's gone'?"

"I get it," Donatello spoke barely above a whisper, "Their objective was to frighten us. Hurt Mikey a bit, show us how much we really care about him and how precious he is to us, freak us all out over losing him and then take him away again. It was all a ploy to make losing him a second time even more painful." His stomach knotted.

"You are the smart one."

"We don't even know you! Why are you part of this?" Leo yelled

"Cause I was paid." He shrugged. Raph shook him again.

"What the hell is going on?" Raph addressed the man menacingly. Dr. X pondered the question for a moment.

"Do any of you know the meaning of the word Renaissance?"

There was a hessitant pause but Donatello replied, "Rennaisance is the French word for rebirth. What are you getting at?"

"Let's just say that project Rennaisance started out as something completely different than what it is now. After the objective changed, your brother became the main key to this whole shindig. At least until he had filled his role."

That was the straw that broke the camels back. Raph's rage went from minor boiling over to full blown explosion.

Leo caught the look in Raph's eyes in alarm, "Wait, Raph!..."

WHAM.

Leo slapped his hand over his eyes and groaned.

Raph had let loose the most technically perfect, straight, powerful punch he had done in a while, slamming his fist into Dr. X face so hard, he knocked out several of the mans porceline white teath. The body flew back several feet before landing, unmoving, onto the ground.

Don and Raph stared in silence, but Leo did not removed his hands from his eyes.

"Raph." Leo started slowly with a forced calmness masking the irritation in his voice, "Why did you do that?"

"He was pissin me off." Raph honestly replied.

"When we get back were going to have to work on that 'hitting everything that pisses me off' thing you have going on," Don muttered (secretly he had been wanting to do the same thing though) as he checked the now bleeding burned man, "You knocked him out cold." He assessed.

Raph ignored him and rolled his shoulder, "You have no idea how much better that made me feel." He grinned.

"Well that's just great," Leo spat sarcastically, "He could have known where Mikey was."

Don stood up, "Well, he probably wasn't going to tell us much more anyway so it probably doesn't matter." He thought outloud. However he was uneasy. What did the man mean by project Rennaisance was something completely diferant from what it was now. What had it been before? There must have been a clue in the word. The French word for rebirth…

"Donny, come on. Let's keep going." Leo was beckoning him, "Raph. Grab X. We may need him later." Raph growled before grabbing the unconscious being by the scruff of his coat. Then he began to walk away, dragging the man behind him not caring that he was hitting every rock, piece of rubble and bump on the way.

In fact, Raph took extra care to make sure the man's body bounced off every little obstruction on the path.

0000000

Things were all falling into place.

A man was sitting in a dark room watching a small flat screen placed in front of him. the soft light coming from the screen cast strange shadows on the man's angular face. He had seen the whole incident between the three brothers and the doctor via the tiny camera on the small golden spider.

His mouth twitched but he did not smile even though he was pleased.

Everything was going according to his wishes. Everything was happening exactly as it should.

After months of planning the ball was finally rolling. His revenge would be complete. His beloved one would be so happy when they learned of his success!

He remembered long ago when the incident that sparked this whole plot occurred. The complete aloneness and seclusion he had felt. When he had begged and asked for help from his supposed leader, she turned him away.

Karai was weak. She had no right in taking her fathers mantel. When he had come to her asking for aid on his revenge, what did she tell him? She had made a truce with the hated enemy that he was seeking retribution against! She had made an armistice with those monsters!

That was when he learned he would have to take matters in his own hands, and from the looks of it, that was the right thing to do. For months he worked, with the help of a hired hand of his: a strange yet prominent doctor of sorts, to make things right; to erase the wrongs of the beloved one. Yet all attempts were failures. So he changed his plan and switched it to be focused on complete vengeance.

Luckily for him he was not the only one that had there new "leaders" ability into question, and when he left the main body of the Foot others followed him. So, in his plot, he was able to get the assistance and manpower he required for this little game of chess he was plotting.

To his luck, most of _them _agreed to aid him as they all, for they're own different purposes, wanted to destroy their old masters vile adversaries. He took them under his wing and began planning and plotting.

It took careful planning and long observations but he was able to come up with the perfect plan.

And now that things were in motion, there were only two more steps left in his plan. The enemy had followed the trail of breadcrumbs long enough and it was time for them to collect their prize.

He stood up and picked up a small microphone off of the desk.

He was going to do to them exactly what they had done to him. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.

He was going to break the enemy.

0000000

Sorry it's kind of short. It was originally longer but then I decided to put the end at the begging of next chapter.

Also, sorry for taking so long! Like I said I have no excuse.

I only have like… 2 or so chapters left. Might take me a while since I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about writing them… Meh.

Oh and to answer a question I was asked. There are a lot of different Murphy's Laws. I'm not entirely sure how many there are but it's a lot. I even think a book was written on all of them or something.

See you all next chapter.

Reviews loves. Flames are given to crazy pyro doctor guy and constructive criticism is appreciated.


	9. Law 9

School's starting on monday D:

This chapter is short but informative and very important. Let's see how much foreshadowing you all caught in the past chapters.

I don't own and never will. Plot and unrecognizable character belong to me though.

00000

**Murphy's Ninth Law: Given the most inappropriate time for something to go wrong, that's when it will occur.**

00000

"_This is so stupid!"_

_The man watched amused as the smaller boy in front of him threw a tantrum. The boy was tall and gangly with the build of a runner. His short brown hair was wild and unkempt, and his eyes, which were flashing with annoyance, were so dark they almost looked black. Beads of sweat, which perspired because of his animated ranting, caused his dark bangs to stick to his pale skin._

"_Are you done yet?" The man in front of him asked patiently as he flipped another page in his book. He was a broad muscular man, built more like a football player then anything. While his appearance was similar to the smaller man's, his features were sharper and more angular then the boys soft face. His hair was kept back in a sleek, short ponytail much more cleanly cut then the others, and he held an air of sophistication._

"_Not quite," With that the boy began to fume and rage, jumping around and waving his arms in a frantic frenzy._

"_Now, now. Good ninja's do not act like spoiled five year olds. Calm down and show some dignity."_

"_But this is stupid!" The young man kicked his bedside only to yelp, and recoil in pain. He growled and flopped onto the bed, "This sucks." He sulked. "This really sucks."_

"_Yes, you've elaborated that." The man did not look up from his book._

"_Do you ever stop reading? And, no really, this sucks." _

_"The Philosophical genius of the western Renaissance is very intriguing. Perhaps you should read more yourself," The man snapped back. The younger one huffed. _

_"I'll pass." and then he began raving again, "This sucks! I mean guard duty? I've been training to be a Foot ninja since I was, what, six years old? Eleven years! And they put me on guard duty? Guard duty! Ok, I could understand maybe guarding some mystical item of doom and power, but a warehouse… That's like the lowest of low! That's where they put all the people with no skills or functions to get them out of the way. The stupid factory thing is empty anyways, and no one cares about it! Hell, the Shredder probably forgot it exists." His slammed his face into the bedspread._

"_Watch your tongue boy. You will speak of our leader with respect and honor." The man reprimanded the younger one._

"_Sorry, bro." his voice was muffled by the pillow. He propped himself up with his elbows, "But this sucks." _

_The man rolled his eyes and flipped his book on Western philosophies shut, "We're not starting this again. These duties are common for one of your age." He began walking away._

"_Says the guy who went elite ninja at 21," the teen grumbled._

_The man stopped and turned to the boy, "You will do what is asked of you with pride and enthusiasm. All great ninja start out as but a lowly student, a disciple of the great secret arts."_

"_Dude… You sound like your 70. Stop talking like that, it's creepy."_

_The man sighed. Young people these days had no respect for their elders…_

"_You're 27. Not exactly elder age…"_

_How did he, "How do you do that?"_

_The younger one smirked, "Apparently, all of my ninja training has done some good." He paused and then scowled, "So, why the hell am I stuck doing guard duty!?"_

"_Shut your mouth, boy. Go put on your shinobi shozoku (1) and wear the Foot symbol with pride. Complete your duty…" He was now in the doorway, "…because no matter what you do, whether it be taking on an army of the enemies, or completing the simple task of guard duty, I will always be proud of you little one."_

"_I'm not little," the boy pouted before a light smile ghosted his lips, "But thanks anyways…" He sighed despondently, "This still sucks though." The boy ducked off the bed to avoid being smacked by a book aimed at his head. The kid cackled before crawling over to his dresser where his "ninja pajamas" were. The man slowly closed the door behind him as he exited the room._

"_He may be rough around the edges but he is destined for good things in his future." The man grinned as he heard a crash then fervent cursing come from behind the closed door._

"_All for some stupid abandoned warehouse! Where the hell is Warehouse 431, Dock 12 anyway?!"_

000000000

The shadowed man shook himself of his thoughts and stared at the microphone he was holding. After a pause he spoke.

000000000

Raph dragged Dr. X a few steps further before tossing the unconscious man to the side roughly. He put his hands on his hips and eyes the room in front of him distastefully, "Now what?" he asked flatly.

"Well, this door's not opening," They had reached the end of the hall and found a door but it was locked.

There was the sound of feedback, causing everyone to jump with a start, and suddenly a voice echoed into the room.

"I applaud you for making it this far," The voice was aloof yet sounded… broken, "Welcome to the final stage of my game. The breadcrumbs have run out and you are now at the end of the trail."

The turtles fingered their weapons tensely, ready to pull them out at any moment to confront the bodiless enemy.

"Are you the one that started all of this?" Leo called. There was no reply, "Whoever is there, show yourself and answer me!"

"Do you wish to get your brother back?" the voice began after several seconds of silence.

"If you have 'im, so help me, I'm gonna tear you apart!" Raph seethed.

"All you have to do is beat our puppet here and you will find your younger brother." The voice reverberated through the room.

The three brothers paused and looked at each other.

"I don't know. It seems too easy." Donny whispered.

"We have nothing else to go on," Leo whispered back.

"Then bring it on!" Raphael yelled.

Raph's command was granted.

A giant metal pod dropped out of the ceiling landing in front of the locked metal doors with a crash. A small red light on the center of it blinked turning green and the doors opened reveling a figure suspended inside hooked up to many wires and cables.

This one was much different than the other two. It was smaller, probably no taller than a few inches over five feet. Its uniform was sleek and black but not made with the same metal plates as the others had been. The substance was more of a flexible organic metal substance that almost looked rubbery. There were accents of white on its inner thighs, triceps, outer calf muscles, and on the collar bone area. On its back was a metal backpack with numerous pockets strapped on with metal latches. The number '1475' was printed in white across its chest on the left.

"Okay Don. Which one is this," Leo inquired while unsheathing his swords.

"1475… Ok, that was the year that Paolo Uccello died. He was an Italian painter who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art during the time of the renaissance."

"Sooooo, what does that tell us about this guy?" Raph scowled at the unmoving figure.

"…I have no idea."

The chords and wires began to detach themselves from the armor, dropping the being onto the ground. It slowly walked out of the pod; each step clinked from the metal jagged cleats of its steel toed boots.

"Be ready guys. We have no idea what this thing is capable of…" Leo barely had time to finish his sentence as the mechanical being darted out of the pod and attacked.

And while this was happening, a man was watching from the safety of his office through a plasma screen. The blue glow flickered, shining off his glassy dark eyes. He was watching intently, the events on the screen, yet his thoughts were elsewhere.

0000000000

"_Yes! Yes!" The tall, wiry, young man began jumping up and down, mussing his already wild hair more with his mighty leaps, "Finally! YES!"_

"_He sure is excited ain't he?" a gruff blond man smiled watching as the kid began doing a jig._

"_Yes. He has been waiting for this… A long time," A tall man, hair slicked back in a ponytail, smiled warmly at the boy, "Our parents would be proud, and he is very happy about his assignment."_

"_He should be. He's officially been a Foot soldier for two years now and this is his first big job." The blond folded his arms over and gave a toothy crooked grin. "Guarding that thingamajig I had to deliver over here. Don't know what it is though. I'm paid to deliver, not ask questions," He scratched his rough morning shadow thoughtfully, "Whatever. Hey, don't he have that guy, Matsuo, as a team leader?" The blond inquired._

"_Yes. Matsuo will take good care of him on his first large mission." Mokoto Matsuo had been his friend since child hood. They had trained together, were inducted into the Elite together and had been best of friends through the years, "He has promised to look after him, and I trust Matsuo with my life." He **had** trusted Matsuo with his life, he thought as he watched the happy youth bounce around in the distance._

"_That Matsuo Feller is real strong, but kind of a hard-ass if I say so my self. Good at what he does though. Kind of comical in an unintentional way. Ya know he has a habit of mixin' up words? Was talkin' about my farm one day and almost got gutted by 'im cuz when I started talkin' about the chickens, he thought I was insultin' him, calling him a perv or something." _

"_Matsuo, is not, ah, completely fluent in the English language. He has spent most of his life in the homeland." Oh the fun that was the English language to a Japanese person. It was kind of amazing how similar chicken and chikan (2) sounded. Not that he could say much. He was having his own problems learning French…_

"_Ceeee-le-bra-tion time, come on!" The boy began singing off key as he did the electric slide. Suddenly, he ran up to the larger dark haired man and gave him bone crushing hug, "I'll finally prove myself Bro! I'll make you proud of me! Just you wait!" And with that he ran off with a bounce in his step, "I just gotta remember where I put my shuriken holster!" and he disappeared off in the distance._

"_He doesn't act much like you ninja folks, now do he?" The old blond delivery man said with amusement in his voice._

"_No he doesn't, but…" he looked over the jubilant teen, "I would not have him any other way." His eyes shown mirth and pride toward the younger one._

0000000000

The mechanical creature slammed his fist into the wall behind where Leo had been standing (Leo sidestepped the attack). Concrete crunched where the figures fist hit.

"That thing's fast!" Don was alarmed as he watched the black figure jump off the wall and go for Leo again.

The blue clad turtle was able to block the first strike, but was rammed quickly after with a powerful, straight back kick. Raph attempted to come to his brother's aid by jabbing the armored man but he was to slow. 1475 ducked, attempted to sweep Raph's legs from under him, but since Raph jumped to avoid it, he instead launched a powerful sidekick to Raph's gut as the turtle came back down.

Winded, Raph collapsed to his knees and watched as the creature went after Donnie. His younger brother was ably to parry a few of the blows, but when he attempted an offensive thrust, his Bo staff was grabbed and he was flung into the wall behind the monster.

"Okay, we seriously need a new plan. This isn't working." Donnie swayed slightly as he stood.

"No really. Ya think?" Raph coughed attempting to gain his breath, "Okay that's it!"

Raph chased after Uccello feverishly, but the armored creature kept twisting, vaulting, and cart wheeling away from the enraged ninja. 1475 barely looked tired at all while Raph was getting increasingly worn out.

Frustrated, Raph took careful aim and chucked one of his Sais at 1475 with as much force as possible.

The pronged weapon met its target. One of the curved outer blades and the long center prong dug into the creature's side with a crunch. The visor covered face merely turned to it calmly before yanking it out and throwing it right back at Raph. The turtle ducked as the sharp object went sailing over head.

"How the hell do we kill this thing?" Raph yanked his Sai out of the wall it had embedded into.

"I don't know…Wait Raph. What's on your Sai?" Raph was perplexed for a moment at Don's words before looking down at his weapon and seeing ruby liquid dripping from the points. Don ran up to him and began to examine the fluid. "What the…This isn't octane or mechanical fluid. This is blood! I don't get it. That thing moves much too unnaturally to be human! Unless…" The first monster had been completely mechanical. The second one had been a mix of organic and mechanical technology. Was it possible this one was even more organic than the last?

"Don. What is going on?"

"I think this thing is a mechanically augmented carbon based life form. Like maybe 2/3 living 1/3 machine or something like that. That's why it moves so smoothly and yet is so strong."

Raph was about to jab the figure, but for some inexplicable reason, he hesitated. Shocked by his faltering, Raph didn't have time to avoid the uppercut aimed at his jaw, and he was knocked back seeing stars.

"Hang on Raph!" With the force of a professional baseball player, Don swung his Bo staff at Uccelo's head resulting with a crack. The being merely stood dazed for a moment before falling face forward onto the ground unmoving, "Did I get it?" Don asked hesitantly inching toward the unconscious figure.

1475 suddenly slammed one of his hands on the ground, pulled his whole body up into a coiled one handed handstand, and then simultaneously slammed both Raph and Don with the backs of his heals in a helicopter kick motion before jumping up and back flipping away.

"No I don't think you did," Raph growled.

The armored figure stumbled back a few steps and Leo took this as an opportunity to slash at it with its swords.

Shk.

One of the beings five fingers came clear off. Its severed end sparked with blue electricity.

The being flexed its hand in front of its face, opening and closing the four remaining fingers. Seemingly unphased by the injury, it reached into the pockets on it's backpack and pulled out a long chained weapon.

"He has a kusari-gama," Leo growled, "Master Splinter warned me of this weapon a long time ago." it was a weapon that was well-suited against swords and spears. Splinter had once told him a tale, right after he was given his swords, of a great 17th Century kusari-gama teacher named Yamada Shinryukan. Shinryukan was known to have killed many swordsmen with his weapon by entangling limbs and swords with the chain then going in for the kill with the sickle end.

But the weapon that this being held was slightly different from the traditional version. Instead of a large weight at the end of the chain there was another Kama attached to it.

"Guys. This is a chain weapon so be wary," The only one of them that had mastery over this type of weapon was Michelangelo and he was not here right now, "Our best bet is to entangle the chain and get it away from him.

The figure swung the sickle end in a lazy figure eight before releasing a bit more of the chains length and swinging it in a long sweeping arc with both power and speed.

Raph, the closest, was nicked on the plastron leaving a fine, thin line across his abs.

"Leo, look out!" Raph cried.

The sickle hit Leo's sword and wrapped around it latching on like a grappling hook. Leo was yanked forward violently by his ensnared sword toward the being and the sickle in his other hand. Leo had sense enough to relinquish the sword from his grip before he was in the red zone.

Uccello momentarily lost his balance and Leo took the opportunity to slice upwards at him. Unfortunately he was out of range and barely managed to clip the helmet the figure was wearing leaving a long vertical crack up the mask area. Spidery, thin cracks formed around the dark tinted glass visor.

Leo looked in shock to see the armored being charging him despite his injuries; both Kamas were being held out intent on drawing blood. Leo's eyes narrowed, "If that's the way you want it!" He readied his sword and charged forward as well.

He ducked the swipe aimed at his head and, with his sword, he ran the being through the abdomen. There was a cracking noise and a shing as the blade went completely through coming out stained red on the other side.

"Congratulations." The voice echoed through the room. The previously locked door opened and a shadowed man walked for through the doors. He was a straight-backed man, tall and muscular, with hair slicked back in a jet black ponytail. Yet his skin was hallowed and yellow from a lack of light, his dark eyes were glassy, sunken in and had dark purple bags beneath them.

And when he talked, he spoke in a tone that could only be described as one who had given up on life, "And as I have promised you will find your younger brother." His hallow voice echoed into the corridors. It was at this moment 1475's helmet cracked in half from the fissure created by Leo's sword and fell away revealing the face of the armored being.

There was emerald skin, and wide shocked brown eyes looking back into Leo's own.

Leo, at that moment, felt himself die inside as he watched the figure fall away from the sword onto the ground with wine colored liquid trailing from the wound. He hit the ground with a thumping noise and did not move.

"Just for future reference, even though 1475 was the year that Uccello died, it was also the same year that one of the most renowned people of the renaissance was born: Michelangelo Buonarroti."

Leo could only stare in horror at the figure on the ground and the liquid pooling around the wound. With a sudden jerk backwards, his sword released from his hands and clattered to the floor. Leo looked at the red stained blades horrified, his breathing hitched, and his heart pounded against his chest. It was the only thing he could hear. All other sounds were drowned out. His hands began to rattle.

Raph's Sais slid out of his loosened grip, dropping to the floor like weights. He stared looked at his own red stained Sai and jerked away from it like it was the Plague in total repulsion.

Donatello dropped to his knees, "There's no way… This can't be happening. Mikey wouldn't attack us…"

"The loyalty chip was a wonderful invention of Dr. X's I must say. Originally, we tested it on insects and spiders to use them as spying devices but we learned they could be used on much larger things as well. It's only about the size of a fingernail and not very hard to install either. Just a small incision, that's all that's needed." The man spoke.

"Who are you? Why did you do this to us!?" Donatello was the only one that was able to function on some level in the surreal numbness that he and his brothers had succumbed to.

"Revenge. This whole plan was so you would all suffer as much as you could possibly suffer. And after watching you four for a long time I began to notice traits about you all and from that I built my plan. So now you all know how it feels to loose a younger brother."

Completely shell shocked, none of them registered that man was speaking.

"One year, 6 months, 23 days, 9 hours and 43 minutes ago," he started, "Was the exact time you four killed my younger brother."

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_The man was running as fast as his legs could carry him across the road. He and his squad of Foot soldiers lightly and effortlessly glided along the alleyways of __New York__, so light of foot, it appeared like they were floating._

_His group had gotten a distress signal from Matsuo's group several minutes earlier. _

_Matsuo's group was in charge of guarding a sacred sword, said to have been forged from the finest metals, by a blacksmith that purified himself underneath a waterfall for 108 days. The sword was to be delivered to the Shredder, but had been acquired through some rather… underhanded methods making it a prime target to beings of the underground world._

_But things had not gone according to plan._

_Because **they** had came._

_It was completely by accident, but while Matsuo's group was delivering the weapon they came across the turtles._

_Four freaks of nature that roamed the city. Four perpetual thorns in his master Shredder's side. Four dangerous, enigmatic beings that had gained quite the reputation among the Foot's ranks. When Matsuo reported this to their honorable master, the Shredder, he was ordered to engage in combat and kill the four turtles by any means necessary._

_An Elite and 20 foot soldiers should have been more then enough to take down those four sorry excuses of ninja's. Things did not work that way however._

_He reached the sight and was frightened when he saw signs of combat but no one. Shoving his slight panic in the back off his mind, he continued forward._

_It was dangerous for a shinobi to become overrun by emotions._

_He walked forward into an abandoned lot. He was shocked to see the bodies of all 20 ninja's littering the ground. Some of them were conscious trying to pull themselves up despite injuries, or check the conditions of their fallen comrades. His personal squadron went to assess the damage done amongst their ranks. Some were dead. Some were not. That was the way of battle._

_However, there was only one ninja he was looking for. He scanned the area and saw Matsuo was walking toward him._

_His old friend's armor was cracked, he had many gashes and cuts, and he had a severe limp. Yet despite his defeat he walked straight and with dignity. But there was something in his posture that seemed off._

_It was then the man realized that his friend was carrying a limp ninja in his arms with a solemn expression. Matsuo wordlessly walked to him and carefully placed the body into his waiting arms, and then dropped to his knees with his fists on the ground._

"_My honorable, loyal friend. I have failed you. I am not worthy of forgiveness. I have dishonored myself by breaking a binding promise between friends. But know I tried. I tried so hard to protect him, to protect them all. I am a failure. Gomen nasai." He kept his forehead on the ground._

_Not completely understanding the situation, the man looked at the figure in his arms impassively. The body was cool but not all warmth was lost. His hands became slick with blood that was pooling from an extremely large gash across the figures abdomen, and he could only look with trepidation at the ninja._

_Supporting the body with one arm, with a shaking hand, he removed the mask of the soldier to reveal familiar pale, smooth skin; recognizable wild, unruly, dark hair; and partially closed, unseeing, dark eyes that no longer carried the warmth and joy they once had. Blood was dripping from his mouth and bubbling from his throat. One of his eyes was completely invisible under a pool of blood forming in the socket._

_The man felt sickness grip his stomach and he dropped to his knees in misery. The anguish he felt in his heart was unbearable as he stared at the angelic yet marred face. He stayed on his knees for what felt like an eternity, not even realizing that hot liquid was trailing from his eyes staining his cloth mask and collar. The rivers of salty liquid were leaking from his heart which had accepted what had happened much quicker then his mind did. _

_They could not be tears though. Ninja did not show emotions for the deceased. That was the mantra that ran through his mind as he held the body tightly against him._

"_My friend. I swear to you now on pain of death, I will do what ever it takes to get revenge for him. From this day forward I will serve you loyally until my honor is regained from this event." Matsuo's husky low voice cracked under his own words slightly, but the man did not acknowledge he had heard anything his friend had said._

_Slowly, and steadily, he stood holding the body in his arms, "He's not dead. I won't let him be. He is everything. He is all I have left," he whispered softly. Ninja were meant to have no attachments to the world. It was the cruel fate of a shinobi, to live unknown and die unknown. Connections to the living made departing much harder._

_But it was so painfully hard to have no attachments. _

"_He fought bravely my friend." Matsuo began hesitantly, "The Turtles- we underestimated them when we attacked them and we were overpowered. The one in purple fractured his leg but he would not give into defeat. He single handedly engaged them all in combat while his comrades were either too injured or dead. He took many blows from all of them but would not back down. I tried getting to him but I was kept at bay by the one in orange. He fought valiantly, and it wasn't until he was struck in the neck that he died."_

_There was no gradual decline away from logical sense. At that moment, when the word 'died' left his friends lips, the man felt his sanity crack in two, and his soul shattered._

"_I will bring him back. I will bring him back," he chuckled softly to himself. Matsuo looked at his friend with dread. "He's just sleeping right now, but he will be reborn. I will give him rebirth." He cackled._

_Matsuo looked grimly at the ground as he watched his lifelong child hood friend break before his very eyes._

"_My younger brother will be given a Renaissance!" _

_It would be done through whatever means necessary. He would bring him back. There was a man that the Shredder had spoken of before: A pyro, yet a mechanical genius who had been working on splicing mechanical beings with organic ones. Perhaps he would be of some use._

_And after he brought his younger brother back, he would have his revenge for the wrong done against him and his family._

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(1)-Ninja traditional garb

(2)-Japanese for pervert

Ummmm…. So...Uh, yeah...

……………

None of you kill me please. There's still one chapter left. (Hides behind stuff to avoid sharp objects being thrown.)

Also, I'm not meaning to be evil, but school might delay the next chapter a bit... but never fear, for I will post it!.

Reviews loved, flames used for marshmallows, CC liked.


	10. Proof of the Law

After nearly 60 days of school, procrastination, writers block and other real life issues getting in the way, I present the final chapter.

Disclaimer: Don't own, never will. Plot and plot devices are mine however.

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**"Proof of Murphy's Law: Murphy's Law cannot be proven, yet is correct, as when you try to prove Murphy's Law, you will see that the proof is incorrect. This is obviously due to Murphy's Law; therefore Murphy's Law is correct and proven."**

0000000000000000

"Well." He paused. "This kind of sucks."

Michelangelo was in a pitch black void. Infinite darkness spanned in all directions showing no end. The nothingness was not cold and despondent, but it was not warm and welcoming either. There were no melancholic emotions or gentle joys felt from being in the space.

It was just there. It just was.

The young turtle sat in an Indian style on the ground (what he assumed was the ground in the void since he couldn't exactly go through it) and was drumming his fingers with one hand and propping his face up with the other.

Mikey could see himself in the complete darkness. He was as visible and bright as if he had been sitting in daylight. This made no sense since there was no light source anywhere nearby but he figured not to ask question and to go with the flow. Things were easier and a lot less painful for his brain to think about things that way.

Speaking of which, Michelangelo was thinking. It was an activity not often associated with the orange clad ninja, but it wasn't like he had anything better to do.

"I still have no clue what's going on," he finally spoke out loud.

His voice echoed through the dark and continued down into the eternal nothingness until silence reigned again.

It was true.

Ever since he had gotten back from retrieving his brothers stuff they had all been acting so secretive and protective around him, leaving him in the dark.

It was pissing him off.

He knew that whatever was going on involved him. The strange blackouts and blanks in his memories were a serious indication. Then there was when he'd be in one location and then instantaneously in a completely different place with no recollection of ever moving.

And then there were those strange machines he kept running into.

Just thinking of them made him shudder.

Who would make those things? They weren't completely mechanical yet they weren't completely organic. They were terrifying splices of both thrown together to create horrific beings. What was their purpose?

"I am so confused," Mikey moaned.

"Want to talk about it?" A new voice cut through the silence.

Michelangelo jumped and stumbled out of his sit, grasped his nunchucks (which had some how magically reappeared in the dark void) and looked around wildly. "Hey, who's there?"

"Good luck with finding me. I don't have a body. My names Vincent by the way, but that makes me feel old so you can call me Vinny." The voice was boyish and warm, a nice change from the monotone boorishness of the void.

"So, like, how do I know you're not some large freakish chicken of doom or something that's waiting for the right moment to disembowel me?" Mikey asked skeptically.

"I err," The voice made a puzzled noise; "You don't really."

"Meh, works for me. Vinny huh?" Mikey stuffed his nunchucks back into his belt and dropped onto the "floor". The voice was surprised at the trusting attitude. "That makes you sound like the Italian mafia or something."

"I assure you there's no relation. You're Michelangelo, right?" The voice echoed.

"How'd you know?"

"I just know these things," Vinny responded impishly. Michelangelo chuckled.

"Ha-ha… I'm having a conversation with a disembodied voice. I am so losing it."

"Hey! I resemble that."

"Sooo, care to explain where this is?" Mikey waved his hand in emphasis at the nothingness.

"Ah, yes. We are currently located in the ever so scenic, middle of absolutely no where," was the chipper reply. "A wonderful little place that is a nexus between one's mind and life and death!"

"Aw, man," Mikey groaned despondently.

"Hey, don't worry buddy. You're not entirely de-"

"Not that. Raph was right! My mind is empty. I owe him ten bucks now."

Vincent went silent. That was an unusual response. People in the void normally reacted much more hysterically. "Aren't you a little bit concerned? I mean, you are right on the cusp of life and death."

"Well, you see you said this is _between_ life and death, which means 'I'm not dead yet.'" He spoke with a false, cheesy British accent. Vinny chuckled.

"You got me there. So, since neither of us are going anywhere how about we chat for a bit?"

"Ah okay…" Mikey paused, "What do you want to talk about?"

"...It really sucks being the younger brother sometimes." Vincent sighed.

"Tell me about it," Mikey agreed wholeheartedly.

"You always feel like you have to prove yourself in your older brother's eyes. You are always waging a futile battle to make them proud of you, only to screw up horribly."

"Well I don't think I agree with that last part. At least not completely," Mikey spoke up, "Not all of the time at least. There are those moments." Vinny went quiet.

"I don't either actually. Not anymore. I just wish I could have realized before my…mistake."

"Your mistake?"

"Let's just say some bad judgment on my part hurt my older brother. A lot," he explained.

"Man, I can completely relate." Mikey rolled his eyes. "I mean it's my fault I'm in this mess. If I was a tiny bit more observant…"

"Yeah. And if I was a bit less stubborn against you guys, maybe I wouldn't have had my ass handed to me in that fight."

Silence.

"What?" Mikey asked, completely horrified.

"Huh? Oh, I fought you guys."

Mikey gave a long excruciating blink.

"You know about a year and a half ago. Was a Foot delivery boy basically. Ran into you guys. Got the life beaten out of me, literally…"

Michelangelo could only gape in complete shock as realization sunk in.

The voice he was talking to… it was one of the Foot ninja they had killed.

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The world was silent to Raph.

He was engulfed in a numbing wave of thoughts and emotions that completely drowned out the outside world. All that existed was his wounded little brother behind him, and maniac in front of him.

That maniac was going to _die._

"You," Raph growled through clenched teeth.

To Raphael it was as if the world was covered in a red haze.

In the span of 1 second, numbness turned to hate. Hatred turned to rage, and then finally rage transformed itself into an apocalyptic fury.

Raphael literally rocketed out of the spot he had been standing and threw himself at the large man.

His bloodstained Sais were left gleaming dully on the ground.

Raphael swung blindly at the ninja, just desperate to make some sort of contact. His strikes were bone crushingly powerful yet his hits never made the mark. While his adrenaline was giving him an extra boost in strength and speed, his rage and sorrow was affecting his accuracy and balance.

The man, a skilled ninja himself, danced and twisted out of harms way with a melancholic indifference. It was almost as if he didn't care if he was hit or not in the long run, but that would be inconvenient for what he needed to do.

The man ducked a potentially dangerous kick from Raph and regarded the young turtle coolly. "Well most of my work is completely done. All that is left is to kill the rest of you." He sidestepped a punch. "The question is how will I do it? Shall I be quick and efficient? Slow and torturous? Perhaps I should kill the strongest of you first. Or do you think I should pick off the weaker of you while the others watch helplessly?"

Raph let loose a strangled scream of frustration, wound back a particularly strong punch and let it fly.

The ninja ducked under his arm, grabbed it as it went by and the next thing Raph knew he was in the air.

Air quickly became ground.

Raph was slammed into the ground with immense force. He could feel waves of pain wash through his body in frantic surges but the pain was quickly washed away by his adrenaline and drive for revenge.

Raphael would not let that bastard leave this place alive even if it killed him.

The red clad ninja gripped the ground and slowly struggled to pull himself up. The large ninja he had been fighting stood over him and watched with mild curiosity.

"Raph, stop!" Donatello cried desperately as he watched his elder brother make a great effort to stand, but it fell on def ears. Raphael began another attack and kept on his furious assault. His judgment was being clouded by anger. "This is bad."

But Donatello couldn't focus on Raph. He had a much more critical problem at hand.

"Mikey?" Donatello crawled over to his little brother. The youngest was sprawled on the floor unmoving. Donny stopped at his side. "Mikey if you can hear me hold on! Mikey?" His little brother remained unresponsive.

For once Donatello did not know what to do.

The metallic suit Michelangelo had on was keeping pressure on the wound, preventing it from bleeding as quickly as it would otherwise. Donatello placed one if his rattling hands over the wound to stifle the bleeding further. "Come on, Mikey. Don't do this to us. Don't do this to us!"

Donny snapped his gaze over to his blue clad brother. Leo was just sitting there doing nothing.

"I didn't…I couldn't have…" Leonardo began to mumble incoherently to himself, lost in his own thoughts.

"Leo? Leo, snap out of it!" Don tried rousing his brother out of his funk but the eldest remained unresponsive. He was too lost in his own world.

"It's my fault…Everything…my fault…"

'_Nice, Leo. Perfect time for Fudoshin(1)." _Donny growled. The youngest quickly located the body of Doctor X, commandeered his white lab coat and started tearing the fabric into thin strips.

Donatello's breathing sped up as he worked, and he could feel the blood pounding in his body.

He was scared.

Shakily, Donny began wrapping Mikey's wound with the strips of cloth best he could even though he knew it probably wouldn't do much.

"Come one Mikey. Hold on for us," Donatello pleaded quietly to the youngest. "You still need to show me the picture you drew. I'm the only one who hasn't seen it yet."

Numbly, Donatello heard a grunt from Raphael as he was hit by the large ninja he was fighting. It didn't register though. All was background noise.

This was all such a mess.

Mikey was dying. Raph was in a blinding rage and about to get pummeled into the ground. Leo was being rendered absolutely useless by his own guilt.

Everything was falling apart before Don's very eyes.

Fearfully, after Donny finished his hap hazard job of dressing the wound, he placed the side of his head against Mikey's chest. To his horror he didn't hear anything.

Mikey's heart had stopped.

"No. Don't do this to us Mikey!"

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Mikey opened his mouth, and shut it. Then he opened it again but promptly snapped it closed once more.

Then he drew a complete blank. How was one to respond to that anyway?

'_Oh gee. Sorry that my brothers and I killed you and stuff. No seriously, our bad. Here's a complimentary fruit basket to make things better!'_

As if sensing Mikey's ambivalent unease, Vincent spoke. "Look I don't blame you," the voice echoed sternly. "Okay, that's a lie. At first I blamed you. In fact I completely hated you all. I died in my prime and was taken away from my older brother, virtually the only thing I cared about. I probably would've haunted you four if I knew how. But after I had time to mull it over I realized that we were all victims of circumstances and, really, I dieing was sort of my fault too."

Mikey stayed silent and so Vinny continued, "I mean we were the ones who were trying to kill you all at first. You guys were acting out of self defense."

"I'm…I…" Gosh darn it. There was still that stupid blank!

"When you're dead, you realize how frivolous some of the stuff you do in life really is," Vincent's voice had a faraway quality to it, almost like he was remising something. "Like us Foot ninja fighting you guys. I mean you four weren't really _our_ enemy personally. We didn't even really know why we were fighting you. But still, you got on our masters bad side and that was good enough a reason for us to kill you. No questions asked." Vinny chuckled darkly. "What a stupid reason."

"Why are you still here?" Mikey blurted out.

The voice responded with silence.

"What. You don't like my company?"

"No I mean you're dead. What about the white lights, and transcending to a higher place, or spirit world, or whatever it is people do when they die. I mean, it can't be much fun being a disembodied voice in a big nothing."

"I can't," came the sullen response. "I can't because that intelligent idiot of a brother of mine… No that husk that _was_ my brother is too busy trying to bring my dead body back to life."

"No way… your?" Mikey gaped.

"Yeah…" the voice trailed off and the Mikey could here a trace of sad humor in the voice. "I'm the body you saw in the glass jar."

Michelangelo was extremely confused at this point.

"Oh look. You're fading away."

Mikey looked at himself and realized he was becoming transparent.

Catching on to Mikey's terror, Vincent explained, "Don't worry. You're on the cusp of life and death, remember? You're being pulled by one of those sides, though which one I'm not sure."

"Gee, that's comforting!" Michelangelo spat sarcastically as he became more transparent by the second.

"Hey. If it's the living world you're going to, I need to ask you a favor..."

Michelangelo nodded. It was the least he could do after what happened to Vincent.

Vincent relayed his message and soon after, Mikey disappeared completely.

Vincent was alone again.

"I'd like to think," he started, "That if circumstances were different, we probably could have been friends..."

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There was still no sound. There was still no pulse.

"Come on Mikey. Come on. You're stronger then this! Come on!" Don cried desperately.

This was wrong! This was all wrong! This wasn't supposed to happen to Mikey. Not sweet, innocent, jubilant Mikey. Not their youngest brother.

This was exactly what they had been trying to prevent. This was the exact moment they had been trying so hard to keep from happening.

But everything had gone wrong.

And, in the end, they were all the cause for all of this to happen.

It was Murphy's Law at its finest.

It was ironic really, Don thought, how fragile a string of events were tide together. This whole stupid situation led back to one thing.

The picture.

If Donatello, Raph and Leo had taken five minutes out of their time to look at the image Michelangelo had wanted so badly to show them, this wouldn't be happening.

If they had, Mikey wouldn't have been so distracted by it during the whole mission they had so long ago. Those five ninja's never would've been able to sneak up on Mikey and hold him hostage. They would've never lost their weapons, and then Mikey never would have gone after them. Mikey never would've fought the first mechanical monster and never would've gotten hurt. Mikey never would've had the loyalty chip implanted in him through the injury on his forehead and never would've had those blanks.

Mikey never would've been controlled by the nameless ninja they were pitted up against now, and never would have had to fight his own brothers.

And then he and his brothers never would've been the reason that Mikey was dieing now.

Don knew that what should've and what could've didn't matter in the long run. Not now at least.

There was only what was, and how to fix the events that had happened.

Keeping his little brother alive was a really good start in Don's opinion.

Don clasped his hands together making a fist and slammed them down has hard as he could onto Mikey's plastron.

Their physiology was different from a human and resuscitation would also work differently. Beating on Mikey's chest would not be as effective because of the plastron, but Don couldn't think of the proper way to start the youngest's heart again.

He couldn't think straight and that was the only thing he could come up with. So he kept on pushing down on Mikey's chest as hard as he could.

Behind him somewhere, Raph hit the wall with a crack and landed on the ground unmoving. He was out cold.

The broken looking man loomed over the irascible ninja, contemplating his next move. However, instead of finishing Raphael off, he turned his sights on Donatello.

"By age. That's how I'll kill you all, yes." The man nodded to himself, seemingly happy with his decided resolution.

As soon as Donatello realized that the man was turning his sights on _him_ he briefly felt a wave of chilling adrenaline surge through his body. Yet Donatello would not give up on his set task and remained by Mikey's side.

The large man began walking toward Donatello but the second youngest would not budge. He would not give up on his little brother.

Only the ominous sound of boots hitting the floor allowed Donatello to know how close the other was getting.

Using all of his strength he slammed both off his fists down on Michelangelo's chest one last time.

Before he could check the effects of his attempt, He was kicked heavily in the gut. The blow was strong enough to send him back several feet. When he landed he instinctively wrapped his arms around his stomach and gasped, winded from the blow. Slowly but surely his constricted lungs loosened. He was able to take breaths of air in the form of short hiccups.

A dull throb was running up and down his left leg. He had twisted his ankle badly on impact. While it wasn't broken, he couldn't stand on it either.

He couldn't get away.

"Yes. By age." The man drew a long sword from a holster on his back.

Donny weakly tried getting to his feat but only succeeded in rising to his knees.

He wouldn't be able to move in time.

Before the man could even draw his sword he was bowled over by a green and blue blur.

"Get away from my little brother!" Leo roared as he tackled the man away from Don.

"L-Leo," Donatello rasped out.

The eldest finally was snapped out of his thoughts when he realized that his other little brothers were in danger as well.

Leo was in a condition similar to Raphael, completely enraged. However, in his polemical state he had a clearer mind.

That tall, pony tailed bastard had made him hurt one of the few people he swore to protect. That did not go down with the fearless leader.

And he'd be damned if he let one of his other precious siblings get hurt as well.

That man would pay.

Both the turtle and the man crashed in a tangled heap on the ground, from which Leo quickly extracted himself from. He backpedaled and dropped himself into an offensive stance.

Leo was weaponless but he wouldn't need his swords.

He would tear into the man with his bare hands.

The other ninja stood as well, towering over Leo nearly twice the turtles height. He positively loomed yet Leo would not back down.

Donatello watched in horror as his eldest engaged in combat with the former Foot elite.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when he remembered something vital.

"Mikey!" Don all but screeched and looked to where his younger brother was.

…Or rather had been.

Only a small puddle of blood remained at the spot, but the youngest turtle was absent.

Donatello looked around wildly but to his horror there was no sign of Michelangelo. He was simply gone.

Donatello groaned. "What the hell is going on now!?"

Leo and the nameless ninja exchanged a few more blows before jumping back to their respective sides.

Then the two began to circle each other like two predators after each others blood.

"I don't know what happened exactly," Leo started through gritted teeth. "You said we killed your younger brother and I'm sorry." the other made no response; "You are a Foot ninja. And I am assuming he was as well. The circumstances were bad. Truly, I'm sorry for your loss." The Man's hand twitched. "But even so, that did not give you the right to do what you did to Mikey!"

Leo lunged.

"Don't you mean what _you_ did to Michelangelo?" The man asked with a pococurante tone.

Leo froze and that's all the large ninja needed.

Leo's opponent fluidly spun around and slammed a well aimed back kick into his stomach sending the turtle flying backwards.

"Leo!" Donatello called in alarm.

The tall man stepped over the body of a gasping Leo and made his way over to Raph.

"Raph!" Donatello called desperately but his older brother wasn't responding quickly enough. Raph was now conscious. However he was still in a daze from all of the blows he had received and was still was trying to collect him self off the floor.

The ninja stopped directly in front of him. Raph barely seemed to realize that he was there.

The large man lifted his blade and positioned it above Raphael's head.

Raph looked up and understanding dawned on him. He was about to be killed.

Out of instinct, he closed his eyes.

"I will kill you all one by one." The man said flatly.

"RAPH!" Donny cried, reaching out to his second eldest as if he could pull him away from the inevitable harm.

And with that the sword came down.

Blood sprayed into the air in a red fan.

Donatello's jaw dropped in disbelief.

Raphael felt warm droplets hit his skin, yet he felt no pain or injury. There was a dull thud next to him and the ring of metal hitting the floor. In a haze, he opened his eyes

The man in front of him was staring at him blankly. A small red stream steadily dripped from his lips, and a red stained, metal sliver was sticking out of his side awkwardly.

"How?" The man asked hoarsely.

The blade retracted back, disappearing into the body leaving only a two inch long, half an inch wide red line on his skin as evidence of it being there. The man stood in shock for a brief moment longer but then dropped to his knees.

Behind him, wielding one of Leonardo's swords, stood Michelangelo.

"This can't be," The man said in disbelief. "Everything was perfect. My plan was flawless. How can you be alive?" There was no ire in his broken voice. Just simple curiosity.

"Hey, if anything can go wrong it will. Murphy's Law's a bitch ain't it?" Mikey stabbed Leo's sword into the ground and leaned against it heavily.

"It's only fair. An eye for an eye. It is what you deserve." The man clutched at his wound to slow the bleeding and carefully stood.

"Didn't some old guy say that an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind?" Mickey snapped back.

"It doesn't matter. I will simply take care of you myself," The man turned on Mikey.

"Ayup. You probably shouldn't do that dude. You'll piss Vincent off."

The man stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes.

"What do you know about Vincent," he hissed. It was the most expression he had shown the turtles.

"When I was in this weird in between place I talked to him, your brother, the guy your keeping in a tube, in that backroom." Michelangelo pointed to the aforementioned place, "And he told me to tell you, I quote, 'Stop being a freaking idiot and let me die in peace you moron! You're keeping me trapped in a disembodied limbo with your freaky-deaky experiments and it doesn't even have a deck of cards. So will you hurry up and let me go so I can see mom and dad! Yeesh, you were always a selfish one. By the way, can't wait to see you soon. Bye.'…unquote."

"How do I know this isn't a trick?" The man asked skeptically.

"He told me to tell you that the book you threw at his head when he was assigned to guard the dock warehouse was on Giotto di Bondone your favorite painter. It was given to you as a gift by your parents three years before they died. Vincent said you read to much so he stole it from you and his it under his floor boards. He gave it back later after you went on a rampage."

The man stared ominously at the turtle who returned it with a flat look of his own.

Wordlessly the man turned and jogged weakly across the room, despite his injuries.

Metal doors slammed behind the man leaving only the four brothers in the large metal room.

Raphael looked up at his brother in complete awe as if it was all a dream and if he looked away his little brother would disappear.

"Mikey?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes, Raph?" Mikey smirked, tiredly.

The three watched him in a numb daze.

"Geeze, Leo. You need to keep a better hold on this thing. I've been using it more than you." Mikey motioned toward the sword he was using as a crutch.

"Mikey," Leo was speechless. "But I…I…"

"You missed."

"What?"

"I said you missed. The vital stuff anyway, and it was a clean cut. Remember that stuff you told me about memory: heart memory and muscle memory and what not? I think your muscle memory remembered not to hurt me _too_ badly" Mikey shrugged, but then winced in pain. "Okay. Getting dizzy now." He began to lean forward but before he could fall Raph and Leo caught him under the arms and kept him steady.

"When we get home, you three better tell me what the shell is going on," Michelangelo mumbled halfheartedly.

Things sank in.

Mikey was okay. He was okay.

Donatello could feel tears of joy welling up in his eyes and he let them run freely. He crawled over to his Bo staff and used it as a crutch to limp over to his brothers.

Raphael was blinking rapidly to keep the watering of his own eyes at bay, but that didn't stop him from grinning ear to ear. "You dumbass," he said affectionately, shaking his head.

Leo felt himself swelling with relief and happiness. He hadn't killed his little brother. He hadn't killed Mikey.

He was ok.

The little happy moment that was building up was completely shattered when a new voice entered the conversation.

"You will not get out of here alive!"

The four turned their heads.

Dr. X was standing in the middle of the room with an empty gasoline canister. A wide manically grin was stretched across his burned face, his porcelain white teach were stained with blood from being hit earlier.

Mikey looked at him quizzically, "Who's the nut job?" he questioned.

DR. X lit a match.

"You've got to be kiddin' me," Raph said in deadpan.

Dr. X dropped the match and the floor was instantly set ablaze.

"I think you hit him to hard Raph!" Don limped back a step.

"And we're only getting started!" The burnt man grinned. He retrieved a small round device from his clothes with a small blue button encrusted in it, "I always figured this might happen so I rigged this whole structure with explosives."

"And this just keeps getting better and better don't it?" Raph said flatly.

X hit the button.

Several distant explosions reverberated through the large room.

Everything was ablaze almost instantaneously.

Dr. X cackled madly. "Fire! Isn't it beautiful! We are going to burn. Burn you hear! The fire is all consuming!" The picked up another canister of gasoline and began dumping it over himself.

"He's off his rocker!" Don yelled.

"Forget him. We need to get out of here!" Leo yelled. The eldest went to collect both of his swords and Raph's Sais. Then he went to Donatello to help him walk in his injured state.

Raphael swept a semiconscious Mikey off his feet. "Which way's the exit?"

"That way…" Leo trailed off.

"In front of the exit stood Matsuo. The elite ninja who had stolen their weapons in the first place.

Raphael snarled. "If that bastard wants to fight let me at 'im!"

"Wait Raph." Leo held his hand up hesitantly and scrutinized the ninja impeding there way.

Matsuo tossed something into the air which Donatello instinctively caught.

They were Michelangelo's nunchucks tide together with his bright orange bandana.

"Leave." Matsuo stepped to the side giving them free passage.

"What?" Donatello was dumbstruck.

"I said leave. You are free to go."

Hesitantly the three passed through the exit. Donatello looked behind him and noticed Matsuo was just standing there.

"Aren't you coming too?" He asked.

"I will stay here with him to the very end. That is my _yakusoku o mamoru (2)_." He said steadily and turned away from the turtles.

The three younger turtles looked at him quizzically but Leonardo understood what he had said perfectly. Leo stared at his back with an understanding but firm gaze.

"Let's go," he said quietly.

The younger ones shared a puzzled look and quickly followed their eldest's lead.

000000000

After the four brothers were gone, Matsuo set off.

He stepped over the charred remains of the insane Dr. X, and walked swiftly through the burning room until he reached the metal doors to his friend's private room.

He pried the door open letting the orange light from behind flood through, and, mindful of the short set of steps at the front, entered.

Inside the large room was cool and dark. The flames had not yet reached it but it was only a matter of time.

His long time friend and comrade was standing in front of the dully glowing canister which held his younger brother's body.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I was making you suffer." the man mumbled. He began to type something in the keyboard next to the canister and then the green glow went out leaving the room in total darkness.

"My friend. I'm sorry," Matsuo said softly.

"Renaissance is the French word for rebirth." The man said monotonously, "I truly believed I could bring my brother back to life. That he could be given his own renaissance… It didn't work."

Matsuo watched him silently.

"I tried everything. I tried giving him life through mechanics. We tested it on so many people but it never worked. We were simply left with half complete abominations of nature and science. I couldn't do that to him. So I used those half complete mistakes and tried using them for revenge. I was so close."

Matsuo looked at his old friend sadly, "You never believed your plan would work."

"I suppose not." He sighed and remained staring at the green cylinder longingly.

"Don't worry my friend. I believe we will be seeing Vincent soon enough."

The flames were starting to spread into the room they were in. They completely engulfed the door. There would be no way to get out now.

The large man slowly turned and faced Matsuo.

Much to Matsuo's surprise, his friend smiled, "Yes that would be best."

Matsuo smiled in return. That was the closet thing to sanity his friend had expressed in a year and a half.

The room was consumed by flames.

And they were all, including Vincent, finally free.

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Deep in the recesses of the burning abandoned hospital, there was a hallway filled with strange mechanical beings.

They were neither fully organic, nor fully mechanical. They were both.

Each one was assigned a name and a number. They were named after beings of the Renaissance.

They were unfortunate creatures, people at one point, that had fallen victim to be part of a mad experiment where the many had suffered in vain for the one.

They were all burning.

They felt no pain though. There was only relief. Freedom from their aching existence.

One of the creatures, only a torso suspended on the wall, watched the flames.

When they reached him, as they began to consume his form, he did not scream in pain.

He merely sighed in content.

_**"And we of the Renaissance give our ode. To the departed painter, Michelangelo."**_

Because of the one called Michelangelo, they were free.

Soon there was nothing left of the torso except for a molten puddle of metal.

The platform below it began to melt as well. The black paint of the words printed on it began to bubble and slide off of the platform.

'El Greco' disappeared.

0000000000000

The four brothers watched the building creak and sway in the flames. Pillars of smoke floated into the afternoon sky blocking the sun from view. They were sitting on one of the neighboring buildings rooftops to avoid being seen by the approaching police and fire trucks.

"I wonder what his name was." Michelangelo asked whimsically.

The mysterious man who had fabricated such a terrible plot of revenge out of insanity and the love for his younger brother; they never even found out his name.

And they never would. There was no way they man would survive the flames.

But Michelangelo felt that at last he would be reunited with his little brother and the two could finally move on in peace.

But it showed that even the nameless enemy could fall to tragedy as well.

"Mikey. I can't tell you how happy I…we are to have you back." Leo said quietly and then enveloped his little brother in a monstrous hug, "I'm so sorry. For everything."

"Leo. You're doing it again," Mikey said flatly. Leo pulled back slightly.

"What?"

"The woes me, everything is my fault thing. Don't." And then Mikey flashed him a grin. Leo smiled back.

Donatello added himself to the hug, "Never EVER do anything to get yourself in a situation like this again or so help me I will lock you in a closet, you hear me?" Donatello groused in good nature.

Away from the three Raph stood with his arms crossed, looking up at the sky. Mikey looked over the heads of his two brothers at him.

"Raph what're you...Are you crying?" Mikey asked incredulously.

"Somethin' in my eye," Raph grumbled as he wiped his eyes fervently.

Mikey gave a big goofy grin.

Out of all his brothers, he knew Raph was probably the happiest of them all right now.

Raph _was _a big ol' softy.

"Get over here." Both Leo and Don grabbed Raph by his arms and pulled him into the hug. Raphael offered little resistance.

And so the three huddled around their youngest and enveloped him in a group hug.

The little brother they hadn't lost. They still had him.

They still had him.

They finally realized how much they needed the youngest.

They would definitely not lose him again.

They stayed in their hug on the rooftop for some time, consumed by their own thoughts. The outside world was drowned out completely. Not the sirens or the sound of snapping wood under the intense blaze of the building could draw them out of it.

"We have to get back. I need to treat Mikey's wounds properly," Donatello sniffled slightly, "And I have to get rid of that chip in Mikey's head."

"Yes! Home!" Mikey agreed wholeheartedly, "Let's go home! Just please no detours this time, okay?"

Good ol' Mikey.

000000000000

Splinter awoke slowly.

He expected to be awoken with feelings of dread.

Especially after what had happened.

When he had encountered his youngest, Michelangelo was not in his right state of mind. He was being controlled by an outside source. Unfortunately Splinter didn't realize this until it was too late. That was why Mikey had been able to knock him out so easily.

That did not bode well.

Yet as he awoke he felt… at peace. .

Emotions of happiness and relief washed over him.

His sons were alright. All of them were. He could sense it.

Splinter smiled and sat up.

He began his trek to the kitchen.

If he were to await his sons' returns, he wanted a nice cup of tea also for the wait.

**THE END **

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(1): This was mentioned in the first chapter._Fudoshin;_ immobile mind (unaffected by anything external)

(2): Roughly means 'Unbreakable promise'

It's done.

……

Wow. Just…Wow. After several months it's complete. No more. Nada. Zip.

I'm rather proud I finally finished. There's definitely a huge sense of accomplishment. I'm really happy with how it turned out too.

To all my readers, especially those who have stuck with me from the beginning, thank you for sticking with me this long journey. I hope you all had an enjoyable read because I had an awesome time writing this.

Special thanks to moogsthewriter for writing me that note. It helped me get off my lazy bum and finish this chapter.

Reviews are loved. CC is welcome. Flames are used for marshmallows.


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